PRESBYTERIAN  BOARD  OF 
FOREIGN  MISSIONS 


SIAM,  THE  PHILlPPiNES,  JAPAN 
CHOSEN  AND  CHINA 

APRIL-NOVEMBER,  1915 


Consisting  of  Mr.  Robert  E.  Speer,  Mr.  Dwight  H.  Day 
David  BovairdjM.D.  and  Mrs.  Bovsftrd 
and  Mr.  T.  Guthrie  Speers 


The  Board  of  Foreign  Missions  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in 
•-  . the  U.  S.  A.,  156  Fifth  Avenue,  New  York  City 


FORMAN  CHRISTIAN  COLLEGE 


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Book  No. 


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LIBRARY 

Gujranwala  Theological  Seminary 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2015 


https://archive.org/details/reportofdeputatiOOspee 


Report  of  Deputation ' 


Sent  by  the  Board  of  Foreign  Missions  of 
the  Presbyterian  Church  in  the  U.  S.  A. 
in  the  Summer  of  1915 


/ 


To  Visit  the  Missions  in  Siam  and  the  Philippine  Islands 
and  on  the  way  home  to  stoj)  at  some  of  the 
Stations  in  Japan,  Korea  and  China 


library 


Gujranwala  Theological  Scminvy 


PRESENTED  BY 

Mr.  Robert  E.  Speer,  Mr.  Dwight  H.  Day 
AND  Dr.  David  Bovaird 

library  of  PRjj  OETON 


JAN  2 3 2008 


The  Board  of  Foreign  M issions  of  the  Presbyterian  Churc^^?^eS^.F?S!^^^^f^V 
156  Fifth  Avenue,  New  York  City 


19  16 


12^7^ 


18  FED  1957 


INTRODUCTION 

Tlie  deputation  consisted  of  Mr.  Dwight  H.  Day,  Treasurer  of 
the  Board,  Dr.  David  Bovaird,  its  Medical  Adviser,  and  Mrs. 
Bovaird,  Mr.  T.  Guthrie  Speers,  and  Mr.  Kobert  E.  Speer,  one 
of  the  Secretaries.  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Bovaird,  Mr.  Speers  and  Mr. 
Speer  sailed  from  San  Francisco  on  April  17th,  visiting  Hono- 
lulu, Japan,  Manila,  and  Canton  on  the  way  out,  and  meeting 
Mr.  Day,  who  had  come  from  England,  in  Penang  on  May  27th, 
Mr.  Day  having  arrived  in  Penang  less  than  an  hour  before  the 
rest  of  the  party.  Tho.se  who  came  from  San  Francisco  had 
unu.sual  opportunities  to  spend  profitably  their  one  day  in  Hono- 
lulu by  reason  of  tlie  unmeasured  hospitality  and  kindness  of 
Ex-Govenior  George  B.  Carter.  In  the  interval  betv’een  the 
steamer’s  arrival  at  Yokohama  and  departure  from  Nagasaki, 
!Mr.  Speer  and  Mr.  Sjjeers  were  able  to  take  part  in  the  united 
evangelistic  caiu])aign  in  Japan  in  Osaka  and  Kobe,  to  vi.sit  the 
station  and  girls’  schocd  in  Sliimouoseki,  to  confer  with  Mr. 
IVhitener  from  Yamaguchi  and  with  the  TTiion  Church  in  Yoko- 
hama and  to  meet  in  Nagasaki  Dr.  Beebe,  Secretary  of  the  China 
^fedical  ^lissionarv  Association,  with  reference  to  problems  of 
medical  education  in  China.  The  steamer  stopped  long  enough 
in  ^fanila  to  make  possible  a visit  to  Baguio  which  the  Mission 
desired  Dr.  Bovaird  to  sw  in  connection  with  the  i)roposal  that 
our  ^Mission  should  build  some  sauatarium  cottages  there. 

Dr.  E.  P.  Dunlaj)  met  the  dej)utation  at  Penang  and  the  time 
from  May  27th  to  July  Kith  was  sj)ent  in  visiting  the  two  mis- 
sions in  Siam.  D was  not  j»ossible  to  visit  Nan  and  Chieng  Bai 
but  the  deputation  went  to  all  the  other  stations. 

From  Bangkok  the  (lej)ntation  went  directly  to  Iloilo  by  way 
of  Singaj»ore  ajid  the  S])anish  >rail.  Both  at  Singapore  and  at 
Penang  the  ^fethodist  missionaries  showed  us  unstinted  kindness 
and  we  had  the  great  j)rivilege  of  Bishop  Eveland’s  company  on 
the  boat  from  Singapore  to  Iloilo.  Jnly  2<!th  to  Sept.  3rd  were 
devoted  to  the  Philii>]dne  Islands,  including  a visitation  of  every 
station  and  a meeting  of  the  Mission.  Then  one  week  was  spent 
in  Korea,  four  weeks  in  Cliina  and  two  weeks  in  Ja])au,  the  party 
returning  home  from  Yokohama  on  Nov.  Jth. 

The  extra  ex]»en.se  of  so  large  a de])utation  was  met  not  by  the 
Board  but  I)v  the  nuMiibers  of  the  de])utation  or  friends  who  be- 
lieved that  such  a visit  should  be  made.  Tlie  ex])en.se  of  publish- 
ing this  foiTuidable  report  also,  it  might  be  well  to  mention,  is 
met  privately  and  not  by  tlie  Board,  the  Board  merely  purchasing 
at  cost  such  cojiies  as  it  desires  to  use. 

Dr.  and  Mrs.  Sailer  and  Miss  Sailer  were  with  us  in  the  Phil- 
ippine Islands  although  we  followed  ditlerent  itineraries  until 
the  mission  meeting,  and  then  came  on  to  Korea  together,  where 

3 


I)i-.  Sailer  leiiiaiiied  afl(M-  llu*  <lej)Utatioii  left.  He  is  iiiukiiig  an 
invaluable  stmly  of  govenmient  ami  niissif)iiary  education  and  it 
is  hoped  will  present  a full  sejjarate  report.  We  rejfret  that  we 
could  not  be  together  all  the  time  and  that  his  re])ort  cannot  be 
included  in  this.  lie  e.X]>ects  to  .stay  in  ('hina  and  .Tainm  until 
early  Si)ring. 

Tills  lias  not  'been  sinijdy  a secretarial  visit.  The  jire.sence  of 
Dr.  Bovaird  and  Mr.  Day  and  of  Dr.  Sailer,  the  Hoard’s  Educa- 
tional Advisei-,  in  the  Philippines  and  Korea,  niaiie  it  possible  to 
give  to  our  conferences  and  investigations  both  a more  general 
and  a more  sjieciali/.ed  character.  The  rejiort  represents  the  gen- 
eral views  of  all  the  members  of  the  de])utation,  but  each  one  is 
responsible  only  for  the  sections  which  he  himself  has  con- 
tributed, Dr.  Bovaird,  for  the  sections  on  medical  missions  and 
health  iiroblems,  Mr.  Day  for  the  sections  on  jiroperty,  treasury 
and  business  problems,  and  Mr.  Speer  for  the  balance  of  the  re- 
port. The  name  or  initials  of  the  writer  are  attached  to  each  sec- 
tion. The  date  and  place  of  writing  are  also  freipieutly  indicated 
to  exidain  occasional  iefeirnc(*s  which  iniglil  othei-wise  be  le.ss 
clear. 

The  letters  with  regard  to  the  various  stations  were  smit  home 
from  the  tield  for  the  information  of  the  Board  and  the  home  con- 
stituency. They  are  inclmbal  here  in  order  to  furnish  to  those 
who  are  not  familiar  with  the  conditions  in  the  different  Missions 
a sympathetic  though  very  inadeipiate  picture  of  the  living  work 
which  is  going  steadily  forward  in  the  midst  of  all  the  i»ei*|)lex- 
ing  (piestions  which  are  heie  discussed. 

Heart  and  conscience  have  been  ])ut  into  this  report  and  into 
the  effort  of  the  de])utation  to  iinderstand  the  j)roblems  which  it 
has  studied,  and  to  .sym])athize  intelligently  with  the  missionar- 
ies who  are  dealing  with  them.  With  a deeper  love  and  regard 
for  them,  with  a stronger  faith  in  (lod  and  His  living  working  in 
the  world  and  with  the  i)rayer  that  this  report  may  render  some 
real  service,  it  is  submitted  herewith  to  the  Board  and  the 
Missions. 

R.  E.  S. 

S.  S.  “Sado  Maru,” 

November  20,  101. I. 


4 


CONTENTS 


I.  THE  MISSIONS  IX  SIAM.  p.^ges 

1.  Letters  from  the  Different  Stations 9-28 

(1)  On  the  West  Side  of  the  Peninsula  of  Siam: 

Tap  Tcang  9-11 

(2)  On  the  East  Side  of  the  Peninsida  of  Siam: 

Xakon  11-14 

(P>)  In  the  Heart  of  Siam:  Pitsanuloke 14-17 

(4)  The  Plain  of  Prae 17-19 

(.5)  A Grave  in  the  Jungle:  Lakon 19-21 

((»)  The.  Work  of  Go<l  in  Chieng  M-ai 21-24 

(7)  Pnder  the  Pagodas  of  Petehahuri 24-20 

(5)  Missions  in  the  (’ai)ital  of  Siam:  Bangkok..  20-2S 

2.  The  Present  Political  Environment  of  ^lissions  in 

Siam 29-41 

0.  .Sowing  th(>  Seed  of  tlie  Ivingdoiii  in  .Siam 42-44 

4.  A Little  ('linie  in  Comi)arat ive  Religion 4.")-.'>l 

').  Talks  witli  Buddhist  Pri(>sts  in  Siam .')2-.')9 

0.  Points  of  Contaet  with  Ghristianity  in  tin*  Heresies  ol' 

Siames<'  Bnddliism 0t)-00 

7.  Letter  Addressed  to  the  'I'wo  Missions  in  .Siam (>7-79 

5.  Problems  of  the  Work  of  our  two  Siam  .Missions..  . SO-100 

9.  A Review  of  the  .Afpdieal  ^Mission  IVork  in  Siam....  Itil-lSl 

10.  Proixu-ty,  I'reasury  and  Business  Questions 182-190 

II.  THE  IMISSIOX  IX  THE  PHILIPPIXES. 

1.  Letter.•^  from  the  Different  Stations 197-21!) 

(1)  Wet  Days  in  Iloilo li)7-200 

(2)  A Fountain  of  Living  Waters,  Dumaguete.  . 200-204 

(3)  On  the  Coast  of  Bohol:  I'aghilaran 204-200 

(4)  Christ  in  Cebu 200-209 

(.1)  On  the  Island  of  Leyte:  Taelohan 209-211 

to)  In  Southern  Luzon:  Albay  and  Xaga 211-214 

(7)  Through  the  Coeoanut  Groves  of  Laguna  and 

Tayabas  214-217 

(8)  The  Xew  Day  in  Manila 217-219 

2.  Some  Prtsent-day  Imi)ressions  of  (’onditions  in  the 

Pliilippmes  220-228 

3.  Some  AsjM?ets  of  the  Religious  Conditions  in  the  Philij)- 

pines  229-23.') 

4.  Questions  of  Policy  and  ilethod  in  the  Philij)i)ine 

^lission  .' 230-270 

5.  A Review  of  the  Medical  ^lission  Work  in  the  Philippines 

277-297 

0.  Property,  Treasury,  and  Business  Questions 298-304 


III.  THE  mSSION  IN  JAPAN.  pages 

1.  First  Impressions  upon  Revisiting  Japan 307-310 

2.  Second  Impressions  upon  Revisiting  Japan 311-319 

3.  Our  Work  with  Christ  and  with  the  Church  of  Christ  in 

Japan  320-.324 

4.  The  Thirtieth  Anniversary  of  the  Ilokoriku  Jogakko.  . 325-3.30 

5.  Some  Present  Missionarj'  Movements  and  Problems  in 

Japan  .331-341 

6.  Problems  of  Health  in  .lapari 342-345 

7.  Property,  Treasurj',  and  Business  Questions 346-348 

IV.  THE  MISSION  IN  KOREA. 

1.  Across  Chosen  and  Manchuria 351-355 

2.  A Visit  to  Syenchun 356-359 

3.  Some  of  the  Present  Problems  of  the  Mission  work  in 

Korea  360-380 

4.  A Review  of  the  Medical  Mission  Work  in  Korea.  ..  . 381-387 

5.  Property,  Treasury,  and  Business  Questions 388-391 

V.  THE  MISSIONS  IN  CHINA. 

1.  Letters  from  Different  Fields 395-413 

(1)  Work  amid  Human  Life  at  its  Maximum  Den- 

sity; Canton  395-.398 

(2)  A Memorable  Sunday  Morning  in  Tientsin.  . 398-403 

(3)  Peking  and  Tsinanfu 403-406 

(4)  The  Three  Stations  of  Kiang  An 407-410 

(•5)  The  Old  That  is  Still  New:  Central  China.  . 410-413 

2.  The  General  Environment  of  Missions  in  China  at  the 

Present  Time  414-4.32 

3.  Some  Present-day  Mission  Questions  in  China 433-457 

4.  A Review  of  the  Medical  Mission  Work  in  China.  ..  . 458-468 

5.  Property,  Treasurj",  and  Business  Questions 469-480 

VI.  SUMMARY  AND  CONCLUSIONS. 

1.  Treasury  Observations  482-487 

2.  General  Reflections  488-512 


I.  THE  MISSIONS  IN  SIAM 

1.  Letters  from  the  DiflEerent  Stations 9-28 

(1)  On  the  West  Side  of  the  Peninsula  of  Siam: 

Tap  Teang  9-11 

(2)  On  the  East  Side  of  the  Peninsula  of  Siam: 

Nakon  11-14 

(3)  In  the  Heart  of  Siam:  Pitsanuloke 14-17 

(4)  The  Plain  of  Prae 17-19 

(5)  A Grave  in  the  Jungle:  Lakon 19-21 

(6)  The  Work  of  God  in  Chieng  Mai 21-24 

(7)  Under  the  Pagodas  of  Petchahuri 24-26 

(8)  Missions  in  the  Capital  of  Siam:  Bangkok.  . 26-28 

2.  The  Present  Political  Environment  of  Missions  in 

Siam 29-41 

3.  Sowing  the  Seed  of  the  Kingdom  in  Siam 42-44 

4.  A Little  Clinic  in  Comparative  Religion 45-51 

5.  Talks  with  Buddhist  Priests  in  Siam 52-59 

6.  Points  of  Contact  with  Christianity  in  the  Heresies  of 

Siamese  Buddhism 60-66 

7.  Letter  Addressed  to  the  Two  Missions  in  Siam 67-79 

8.  Problems  of  the  Work  of  our  two  Siam  Missions..  . 80-160 

9.  A Review  of  the  Medical  Mission  Work  in  Siam.  .. . 161-181 

)0.  Property,  Treasury  and  Business  Questions 182-193 


7 


I.  THE  MISSIONS  IN  SIAM 

1.  LETTERS  FROM  THE  DIFFERENT  STATIONS  IN  SIAM 

fl)  ON  THE  WEST  SIDE  OF  THE  I'ENINSFEA  OF  SIAM:  TAP  TEANG 

Nakoii  Sritamarat,  Siam, 
June  3.  11)15. 

We  h ave  just  come  from  a four-days’  visit  to  Taj)  Teauff,  one 
of  the  newest  and  mo.st  far  away  ^Mission  stations  of  onr  Clinrcli, 
in  tlie  province  of  Tran<>-  on  tlie  hay  of  Bent>al  side  of  the  lower 
Siam  peiiimsnla.  And  while  the  impressions  of  the  station  are 
still  fresh  and  vivid  I wish  to  set  some  of  them  down  for  those 
whose  gifts  established  the  station  and  maintain  it  as  one  of  the 
advanced  missionary  undertakings  of  onr  ('hnrch. 

The  station  is  the  outgrowth  of  twenty-tive  years  of  itinerating 
work  by  Dr.  and  Mrs.  E.  R.  Dnnlaj)  who  traveled  ii])  and  down 
these  jH-ovinces  when  there  were  only  jungle  jiaths  through  the 
forests  and  crazy  little  sail  boats  along  the  coast.  On  one  of 
his  first  visits  to  Taj)  Teang  village  through  a riiristian  (’hinese 
who  had  emigrat(*d  to  the  peninsula  from  Hong  Kong,  Dr.  Dnn- 
laj)  met  an  old  Siamese  gentleman  who  liad  come,  through  re- 
flections u])on  natni-al  religion  and  esjiecially  u])on  the  wonder 
of  the  strncfnre  of  the  hnman  hand,  to  helievi*  in  a heneticent  and 
fatherly  creator  and  who  when  he  first  heard  the  Oosjiel  wel- 
comed it  as  the  full  revelation  of  the  truth  which  he  had  already 
dimly  grasjn'd.  Fortv  of  this  old  man’s  descendants  have  come 
into  the  (’hristian  (’hnrch  and  scattered  through  the  villages 
north  and  south  an*  now  thrive  hundred  l)a]»tiz(“d  helimers  con- 
nected with  the  central  church  in  Tap  Teang,  and  far  and  wide 
through  a region  untouched  by  any  other  agencies  of  ('hristian- 
ity.  Dr.  Dunlaj)  and  Ids  comjtanions  are  sowing  the  seed  of  the 
Hos]»el  on  .soil  which  is  friendly  to  it. 

As  our  little  coasting  steamship  landed  us  at  tin*  wnJched 
village  of  Trang  early  on  Sunday  morning,  some  of  the  Ixdimers 
came  to  meet  us  and  we  went  with  them  np  the  long  street  of  tlu' 
village  jiast  the  little  houses  built  on  piles  over  the  tide  water 
and  the  sw:im]»s.  to  the  m*at  cha])el  wlu*re  a coni]»any  of  earnest 
('hristians  welcomed  us  in  that  fellowshij)  in  Christ  which  bridges 
every  racial  chasm  and  overleajts  all  the  boundaries  (d'  land  and 
.sea.  Most  of  these  believers  at  Trang  were  (’hinese,  ]>art  of  the 
great  immigrant  invasion  which  has  furnished  the  SiaimMalav 
])eidnsula  with  its  bi'st  stock.  The  Chinese  stand  first  in  all 
these  lands  in  industry,  eViciency  and  jiower. 

The  Taj)  Teang  station  e(pii]»m<*nt  consists  at  ]uesent  of  a resi- 
dence compound  for  Dr.  Dunlap  and  Mr.  Snydm-,  a hosjiital  com- 
ipound  for  the  hosjdtal  and  residence,  the  gift  of  the  Siamese 

9 


High  Commissioner,  and  a church  compound  on  which  it  is  de- 
sired to  erect  also  a school  for  hoys  and  girls  and  a residence  for 
the  unmarried  women  of  the  station.  The  little  school  which  has 
been  started  is  the  only  Christian  school  in  the  whole  state  of 
Puket  with  its  seven  provinces  belonging  to  the  Tap  Teang  field. 
A score  or  two  of  children  have  already  gathered  in  the  school 
delighted  at  the  pro.spect  which  it  has  opened  to  them,  and  there 
is  a chance  here  not  only  to  train  Christian  men  and  women  for 
intelligent  service  as  they  go  about  their  own  lives,  but  also  to 
prepare  teachers  for  the  Christian  schools  which  should  be  scat- 
tered up  and  down  these  provinces.  The  only  schools  available 
for  the  people  now  are  the  unorganized  and  as  yet  inefficient 
schools  in  the  Buddhist  wats  or  temples.  For  several  years  Dr. 
Dunlap,  who  is  beloved  and  honored  by  the  Siam  officials  from 
the  royal  family  down,  was  superintendent  of  schools  for  the  gov- 
ernment in  the  Trang  province  and  was  building  up  an  efficient 
pystem  until  a change  of  commis.sioners  involved  such  limiting 
conditions  as  made  it  impossible  for  him  to  go  on. 

Just  as  the  little  Christian  school  is  the  only  center  of  such 
enlightenment  in  these  provinces,  so  the  hospital  is  the  only  place 
of  rest,  succor  and  relief  to  the  sick  and  needy,  and  its  influence 
has  gone  out  far  and  wide.  As  we  came  away  from  Trang  one  of 
the  fellow  passengers  in  our  coach  was  an  old  priest  from  the 
(Chinese  temple  in  Penang,  conducting  a cocoanut  grove  now  in 
the  province  of  Trang  for  the  benefit  of  his  temple.  Bobbers  had 
pounded  him  up  not  long  before  and  only  Miss  Christianson’s 
.skillful  care  at  the  hospital  had  brought  him  through.  He  and 
we  had  no  common  language  except  our  common  appreciation  of 
the  Christlike  spirit  and  the  cunning  skill  of  Miss  Christianson 
and  our  common  gratitude  to  the  great  Love  which  had  brought 
her  to  Siam  to  conditions  vastly  different  from  those  she  had 
known  at  home.  In  Dr.  Bulkley’s  absence  there  has  been  no  medi- 
cal missionary  in  the  station  since  January  a year  ago,  and  for 
all  this  time  Miss  Christianson  has  carried  the  full  responsibilty, 
risking  critical  surgical  service  at  times  simply  because  it  had 
to  be  done  and  there  was  no  one  else  to  do  it,  and  single-handed 
accomplishing  work  which  half  a dozen  workers  at  home  would 
not  have  undertaken. 

The  Christian  congregation  at  Tap  Teang  took  us  right  into 
their  hearts  and  they  certainly  walked  right  into  ours.  Men, 
women  and  little  children,  they  knew  whom  they  had  believed 
pnd  rejoiced  in  Him  with  a great  love  and  joy.  Christ  was  no 
stranger  either  in  their  hearts  or  in  their  homes  and  again  and 
again  we  met  together  with  a full  consciousness  that  we  had  one 
faith,  one  Lord,  one  baptism  and  were  bound  together  in  the  fam- 
ily of  the  one  God  and  Father  of  us  all. 

The  regular  market  day  fell  on  our  last  day  in  Tap  Teang  and 
we  spent  the  morning  there  in  the  comer  of  the  market  where 
the  evangelists  preach  to  the  people.  It  was  fascinating  to  watch 
especially  the  old  men  from  the  country  drift  by  in  the  throng 

10 


and  stop  to  listen  and  then  see  them  caught  by  some  word  of 
truth  and  sit  down  on  the  edge  of  the  platform  from  which  the 
evangelists  spoke.  Then  as  the  truth  was  opened  out  these  old 
men  would  begin  to  nod  assent,  to  express  their  delight,  to  ask 
que.stions,  and  they  would  end  by  climbing  up  on  the  platform 
and  forgetting  all  other  errands  as  they  learned  all  they  could  of 
this  new  story  to  take  back  with  them  to  their  villages.  We  saw 
the  seed  of  tlie  Kingdom  sown  on  absolutely  new  soil  and  realized 
that  each  one  of  these  old  men  would  be  the  beginning  of  a new 
work  of  evangelization. 

This  is  nii.ssion  work  in  its  truest  and  purest  and  most  Christ- 
like  form.  It  is  the  heroic,  pioneering  part  of  mission  work  in 
which  men  do  not  build  on  other  men’s  foundations  but  go  out 
into  the  heart  of  the  jungles  and  lay  there  the  first  stones  of  the 
walls  of  the  city  of  God.  The  men  and  women  who  are  doing  this 
work  have  no  borrowed  glory,  indeed  they  do  not  know  that  they 
have  any  glory  at  all.  but  every  hour  that  we  were  with  them  we 
saw  the  glory  as  of  the  mes.sengers  of  God  who  forget  themselves 
but  in  whom  the  grace  and  truth  of  the  heavenly  spirit  shine 
forth.  This  is  not  the  sort  of  mi.ssionai*j^  work  which  exploits  it- 
self or  is  clever  in  its  adverti.sing  and  appeal,  but  if  there  is  any 
work  regarding  which  the  Lord  Jesus  must  be  pleased  and  in 
which  he  must  recognize  loday  tlie  veiy  likeness  of  the  work 
which  he  did  while  he  was  here  on  eai’th,  it  is  work  like  this  at 
Tap  Teang. 

What  makes  such  work  possible  is  love  and  faith  in  the  hearts 
of  men  and  women.  Neither  the  slow  toil  of  the  years  nor  the 
wet  miseries  of  Ihe  jungle,  nor  the  isolation  and  loneliness  could 
(|uench  that  love  or  (piell  that  faith,  and  now  at  last  the  fruitage 
of  peace  and  joy  is  being  gathered  in.  What  greater  privilege 
could  we  have  than  to  share  yet  more  fully  in  this  fruitage? 

R.  E.  S. 

(2)  ox  THE  EAST  COAST  OF  THE  PEXrXSULA  OF  SIAM:  NAKON 

S.  S.  “Asdang,”  Gulf  of  Siam, 
June  10,  1915. 

We  have  just  come  from  a visit  of  the  deepest  interest  to  the 
Nakon  station.  Nakon  is  a provincial  capital  and  it  and  Tap 
Teang  are  the  two  mission  centres  from  which  the  Christian 
Church  is  seeking  to  evangelize  the  lower  peninsula  of  Siam.  It 
is  an  old,  old  city  with  an  ancient,  crenolated  brick  wall  falling 
into  ruins,  and  the  city  itself  has  outgrown  the  walls  and  stretches 
in  a long  line  of  houses  for  .several  miles  on  either  side  of  a 
broad,  well-kej>t  street,  shaded  by  great  tamarind  trees.  The 
city  itself  is  but  a small  jiart  of  the  field,  which  extends  from 
Singora  in  the  south  to  the  southern  boundary  of  our  Petchaburi 
field  in  the  north  and  embraces  some  five  or  six  hundred  thou- 
sand j)eoj)le  for  whose  evangelization  our  Church  alone  has  un- 
dertaken the  re.sponsibility. 


11 


A ”00(1  ])art  of  tlio  (’liristiaii  con”;r(‘-<>at ion  in  Nakon  came  down 
to  tlie  railroad  station  to  meet  us  as  we  arrived  from  Tap  Teang 
after  a journey  of  live  hours  l)v  rail,  wliicli  only  a few  years  ago 
re(]uir(*d  five  days  l)v  elephant.  And  not  only  the  church,  but 
representatives  of  every  element  in  the  community  came  to  the 
rec‘ej)tiou  which  tlie  church  liad  an-anged  in  the  ev(uiing.  There 
were  Siamese,  riiinese,  Indians,  all  the  way  from  I’eshawur  on 
the  border  of  Afghanistan  to  ('eylon,  and  Malays.  The  riiinese 
and  Indians  ai-e  the  business  men  of  the  community,  and  here, 
as  everywhere  in  the  jieninsula  down  to  Singapore  and  across 
the  Straits  in  the  Dutch  Kast  Indies,  it  is  the  ('hine^se  who 
su])])ly  the  energy,  the  business  ehiciency,'  and  the  industrial 
labor.  They  have  come  also  in  good  nuntbers  into  the  (Miristian 
churches  and  the  leading  layman  in  the  Nakon  church  is  a ("hin- 
ese  merchant  and  capitalist  who  gives  generously  Ixith  of  his 
jiei-soiial  service  and  of  his  wealth.  lie  illustrat(*s  also  one  of  the 
great  jmrblems  of  mission  work  in  these  fields.  Before  he  bec'ame 
a rliristian,  his  tii-st  wife  being  childless,  he  took  with  her  con- 
sent. a second  wile  that  he  might  have  the  children  without  which 
the  heart  of  a (’hinese  can  not  be  satisfi(M  here  or  his  soul  at 
l»eace  h(M(*after.  When  he  desired  to  come  into  the  chui-ch  he 
was  told  that  it  was  inipo.ssible  to  admit  a polygamist  to  the  com- 
munion and  he  is  waiting,  accordingly,  until  he  can  free  himself 
from  his  jiresent  situation,  but  meanwhile  he  overflows  with  gen- 
ei'ous  activity  in  all  the  work  of  the  church.  The  Chinese  in 
these  ])i-ovinces  are  chiefly  from  fhe  island  of  Hainan  in  China, 
and  the  Ilainanese  have  never  been  willing  to  let  their  women 
emigrate,  fearful  of  the  dangers  to  their  good  character,  and  the 
re.sult  has  been  that  the  many  Ilainanese  men  who  come,  al- 
I hough  thev  have  wives  of  theii-  own  at  home  in  Hainan,  take 
also  Siamese  wives,  and  when  these  men.  reached  by  Christianity 
in  Siam,  come  to  the  church,  the  church,  with  ])roblems  enough 
already  to  solve,  has  to  face  also  this  vital  and  fundamental 
]ti-oblein  of  safeguarding  the  ])rinci]de  of  the  unity  and  ])urity  of 
the  home.  It  is  safe  to  say  that  these  young  Christian  churches 
on  the  mission  fields  are  facing  this  jiroblem  with  a courage  which 
might  well  be  imitated  by  the  chuirhes  in  some  of  the  western 
lands. 

The  (wangelistic  work  of  the  station  consists  of  the  local  church, 
the  itinerating  work  amid  the  jungles  and  on  the  islands  off  the 
coast,  a fascinating  mi.ssion  Sunday-school  among  the  little 
naked,  brown  children  in  the  heart  of  Ihe  old  city,  and  the  chapel 
services  in  the  hos])i1al.  If  there  is  anyone  at  home  who  thinks 
that  Christianity  is  a .sjtent  force  or  has  lost  its  courage,  its 
faith,  or  its  ])ertinacity.  I wish  he  might  have  been  with  us  at 
the  Suudav  moruing  service  at  the  church.  The  neat  building. 
s])otlessly  clean,  was  tilled  with  men  and  women  and  children. 
The  congregation  sang,  in  their  own  tongue,  some  of  the  gi*eat 
old  hymns  of  the  church  and  read  all  in  unison  the  last  chapter 
of  the  (ios]»el  of  Matthew,  and  listened  intently,  children  and  all, 

12 


to  Dr.  Wacliter’s  translation  of  the  addres.ses  of  the  visitor.s.  A 
current  of  wonderfnlly  variegated  life  flowed  by  on  the  broad 
road  before  the  church.  Some  would  stop  and  stand  in  the  door- 
ways and  li.sten.  Here  and  there  in  the  congregation  sat  ban- 
daged patients  from  the  mission  hosi)ital  across  the  street.  From 
the  platform  we  could  look  out  through  the  open  doors  and  see 
the  cleanly,  colored  walls  of  the  hos])ital  with  its  obvious  marks 
of  order  and  efliciency  and  service.  Adjoining  the  ho.s]>ital  was 
a great  Buddhist  teni]>le  comjtound.  An  old  ])agoda  falling  into 
ruins  was  overgrown  with  trees  ami  foliage.  A great  Buddhist 
image  sat  defaced  ami  neglected  before  the  ])agoda  under  a cor- 
rugated iron  roof.  No  worshij)])ers  knelt  before  it.  No  voice  of 
worship  or  of  teaching  could  be  heard.  There  was  Siamese  Budd- 
hism, indolent,  torpid,  inetfective,  living  on  only  as  a .sedative 
and  an  oj)iate,  strong  in  the  tra<lition  and  inertia  of  two  thousand 
years.  Here,  beside  it  and  across  the  street,  was  Christianity, 
alert,  living,  .serving  mankind  in  the  ministry  of  an  active  love, 
filled  with  tlie  spirit  of  Him  who  said,  “I  came  to  minister,”  and 
“I  must  work.” 

Tender  Dr.  Van  ^letre's  care,  the  hosjtital,  so  well  served  by  Dr. 
Swart  and  Dr.  Wacliter,  has  increa.sed  its  work  and  influence. 
I’art  of  its  ])resent  eipujnnent  was  given  by  His  Majesty,  the 
])resent  King,  when  he  was  Crown  I’rince,  and  he  is  ex]>ected 
soon  to  visit  the  hos]»ital  on  his  ])resent  tour  in  tliese  southern 
])rovinc(‘s.  Tlie  ho.sj)ital  is  seeking  to  be  not  only  a good  me<lical 
institution  but  also  a true  center  of  evangelization.  It  has  a 
most  interesting  record  book  preserving  the  history  of  each  case, 
including  a memorandum  of  the  religious  teaching  received  by 
the  j)atient  and  his  attitude  to  it.  and  ])roviding  foi-  a record  of 
visits  made  to  him  in  his  home  village  after  his  return.  Nothing 
that  we  have  seen  has  gone  more  directly  to  our  hearts  than  the 
chapel  service  at  this  hos])ital.  All  the  ]»atients  who  could  be 
niove<l  were  brought  into  the  front  coriidor  and  recejition  hall 
and  there  we  s;it  in  the  midst  of  them.  One  was  an  old  wonnin 
from  who.se  left  temple  a huge  cancer  had  been  cut  away.  Two 
little  girl  i»atients  h*d  in  by  the  hand  an  old  blind  woman  await- 
ing o])eration  for  cataract.  A Siamese*  widow  dies.sed  in  mourn- 
ing, all  in  white,  was  there  with  a tumor  which  w:is  to  be  taken 
away.  An  oflicial  had  just  c(»me  foi-  an  o]»eration.  It  was  such  a 
comjeany  as  our  Lord  must  have  looked  upon  as  He  stood  in  the 
door  of  Simon’s  mother’s  house  as  the  sun  was  going  down.  And 
as  the  company  sjuig  “The  (treat  Physician  now  is  near.”  we  felt 
sure  that  He  was  indeed  there  as  truly  as  in  (’a])ernaum.  If 
any  heart  wishes  to  be  sure  of  b(‘ing  with  Him  it  need  only  follow 
Him  into  such  scenes  as  these  in  the  hosj)ital  at  Nakon. 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  Fckles  and  Miss  Cooper  were  at  home  on  fur- 
lough but  Miss  Muller  was  conducting  the  boys’  and  girls’  schools 
together  in  the  comfortable  open  basement  of  Mr.  Fckles’  Siame.se 
house.  The  little  son  of  the  (Jovernor,  the  children  of  the  first 
and  .second  judges  and  of  the  well-to-do  merchants  met  here  foi- 
ls 


good  teaching,  which  included  the  daily  study  of  the  Bible,  with 
children  of  the  coolie  and  the  farmer.  The  Governor  on  whom 
we  called  expressed  his  highest  appreciation  of  the  missionaries 
and  the  gratitude  of  Siam  for  what  they  had  done,  and  said  he 
had  two  sons  in  the  mission’s  college  for  hoj’s  in  Bangkok.  As  a 
token  of  his  appreciation  of  the  rni.ssionaries  he  .sent  his  automo- 
biles for  us  one  afternoon  for  a visit  to  the  oldest  temple  in 
Nakon,  and  his  elephants  another  after-noon  to  take  us  out  to  a 
garden  in  the  jungle. 

The  little  congregation  on  Sunday  moi-ning  numbered  the  same 
as  the  group  of  the  disciples  gathered  in  Jeru.'ialem  after  the  day 
of  Pentecost.  May  we  not  believe  that,  as  from  those  beginnings, 
the  Christian  Church  went  forth  to  change  the  whole  mightj' 
empire  of  Rome,  so  from  these  beginnings  Christ’s  Church  may 
move  out  to  win  the.se  people  along  the  coasts  and  in  the  fore.st 
deeps  of  lower  Siam  and  to  do  it  in  less  than  the  four  centuries 
needed  to  win  Rome. 

R.  E.  S. 


(3)  IN  THE  HEART  OF  SIAM 

S.  S.  “Katong,”  Gulf  of  Siam, 
July  17,  1915. 

Rowland  Macdonald  Stephenson,  the  extraordinary,  but  some- 
what eccentric  genius  who  planned  the  great  railway  system  of 
India,  dreamed  of  the  day  when  the  traveler  could  go  by  continu- 
ous journey  by  rail  from  Calais  to  Calcutta.  Later  builders  have 
added  to  this  dream  and  i)lanned  the  continuation  of  the  line 
from  Calcutta  to  Singapore,  connecting  the  extreme  southeastern 
corner  of  Asia  with  the  northwestern  coraer  of  Europe.  But 
this  will  not  be  the  only  route  by  wliich  the  traveler  can  reach 
Singai)ore  or  Bangkok,  tlie  capital  of  Siam,  which  is  better  en- 
titled than  Singapore  to  be  regarded  as  the  terminus  of  this 
trans-hemispheric  system.  Taking  one  route  he  may  come  by 
Calais,  Constantinople,  Bagdad,  Bushire,  Karachi,  Calcutta,  and 
Rangoon,  or  he  may  take  a (piite  ditferent  route  and  come  via 
Berlin,  Mo.scow,  Irkutsk,  Mukden,  Pekin,  Hankow,  Yunnanfu, 
and  Chieng  Mai  to  Bangkok.  Neither  of  these  two  monumental 
railroad  i)rojects  is  entirely  a dream.  Great  .sections  of  each 
have  been  already  completed  and  it  may  be  that  we  shall  see  the 
.second  line  done  before  the  fir.st. 

Whoever  comes  to  Bangkok  by  this  route  will  pass  right  down 
through  the  heart  of  Siam.  It  will  be  a long  time  before  he  can 
do  this  coming  from  the  noi-th,  but  he  can  already  do  it  going  up 
from  the  South.  For  some  years  the  Royal  Siamese  Railways 
liave  been  in  operation  from  Bangkok  northward  to  Pitsanuloke, 
making  possible  in  eleven  hours  a journey  which,  iu  the  old  times, 
re(iuired  many  days  of  slow  travel  by  boat  up  the  long  reaches 
of  the  river  Me  nam.  And  here  at  Pitsanuloke  iu  the  very  heart 
of  the  Kingdom  of  Siam  is  one  of  those  outposts  of  the  Kingdom 

14 


of  Christ  from  which  a little  handful  of  men  and  women,  un- 
appalled by  the  enormity  of  their  task,  are  seeking  not  to  tear 
down  the  sovereignty  of  any  earthly  master  hut  to  extend  the 
sovereignty  of  a heavenly. 

It  is  a wide  and  extensive  field  which  is  allotted  to  the  Pit- 
sanuloke  station.  Northward  along  the  Me  nam  River  there  are 
two  hundred  villages  for  which  the  station  is  responsible,  and 
southward  to  Paknampo  not  less  than  one  hundred  and  fifty 
villages.  Westward  there  are  two  other  rivers  which  can  be  as- 
cended from  Paknampo,  and  eastward  the  whole  field  is  open  for 
three  hundred  miles  to  the  frontier  of  French  Annam.  And  the 
field  is  as  difficiilt  as  it  is  extensive.  During  a good  part  of  the 
j^ear  it  is  flooded  and  even  at  the  best  seasons  heat  and  bad  water 
and  insects  and  discomfort  make  touring  no  easy  matter,  and 
call  for  a persistent  and  unflinching  devotion  in  the  hearts  of  the 
missionaries  who  are  willing,  as  we  can  thank  God  our  mission- 
aries have  been,  to  undertake  the  evangelization  of  this  great 
field. 

We  reached  Pitsanuloke  on  a sultry  Saturday  evening  in  the 
month  of  June.  The  long  street  from  the  railroad  station  to  the 
river  was  lined  with  the  shops  of  Chinese  merchants  who  seemed 
to  outnumber  the  Siamese  in  the  markets,  and  who,  naked  to 
the  waist  and  with  loose  Chinese  trousers,  were  more  sensibly 
adjusted  to  the  conditions  than  the  white  man  laden  with  his 
conventions.  A brown  river  running  under  deep,  steep  banks 
cleaves  Pit.sanuloke  in  twain.  On  the  east  bank  are  the  markets 
and  the  railroad  and  the  headquarters  of  the  gendarmerie,  and 
rising  above  these  a beautiful,  shapelj',  golden  pagoda  keeping 
guard  over  the  handsome.st  temple  we  have  seen  in  Siam  outside 
of  Bangkok.  On  the  other  side  of  the  I'iver  are  the  barracks  with 
a full  regiment,  the  government  ollices,  the  Lord  Lieutenant’s 
residence,  the  homes  and  institutions  of  the  missionaries,  and  a 
large  village  population  round  about.  To  the  evening  meeting 
there  came  the  little  group  of  Christian  believer.s,  children  of  the 
school,  and  some  of  those  who  were  not  yet  Christians  but  who 
were  ready  to  hear  what  this  new  religion  might  have  to  say. 
Two  government  doctors,  the  advance  guard  of  an  increasing 
number  of  young  men  trained  in  western  medicine  in  the  gov- 
ernment school  where  they  feel  also  the  influence  of  the  warm 
Christian  character  and  the  earnest  zeal  of  Dr.  George  B.  Mc- 
Farland, Dean  of  the  .school  and  son  of  one  of  the  early  mission- 
aries. Two  officers  from  the  barracks  came  also  to  the  meeting, 
one  of  tlieni  the  colonel  in  command,  and  no  one  appreciated  more 
keenly  than  he  the  telling  arguments  of  Dr.  McFarland  who  had 
come  with  us  to  Pitsanuloke,  as  he  set  forth  in  his  superb  com- 
mand of  Siamese  language  and  modes  of  thought,  the  unsatisfac- 
toriness of  the  agnostic  view  of  the  world  and  its  origin  which  is 
all  that  Buddhism  has  to  offer.  I must  not  forget,  however,  to 
mention  the  insects  which  attended  this  meeting.  They  came  in 
innumerable  myriads  and  dropped  down  the  necks  of  the  speak- 

15 


ors  and  into  tlitdr  liaii-  and  tlune  was  no  (*scai»(*  from  tlimn  oxcojjt 
bj’  going  to  bed  under  mos(inito  nets. 

IMtsannloke  is  one  of  the  newer  stations  of  the  Siam  Mission 
but  it  is  Imilding  uj)  rai»idly  and  effectively  the  wide-reaching 
activities  characteri.stic  of  our  I’resbyterian  Mission  stations. 
Ml-.  -lones  has  charge  of  the  itinerating  work  and  makes  his  life 
reach  as  far  as  one  man’s  life  can  go.  Mr.  Stewart  has  charge 
of  the  boys’  school  and  the  local  church  and  neither  the  profier 
fees  nor  the  missionary  ]»nr]>ose  of  tlu*  school  ]»i-event  its  holding 
its  own  amid  the  Ifnddhist  schools  round  about.  The  girls’ 
school  is  in  care  of  Miss  McClure,  with  the  competent  helji  of 
Me  Pin,  an  attractive  Siamese  girl  trained  in  the  Wang  Lang 
school  in  Bangkok  which  is  sending  out  its  influences  for  good  all 
over  the  land.  Dr.  Shellman  has  charge  of  the  hosjdtal  and  is 
erecting  new  buildings  with  contributions  gathered  on  the  field. 
He  has  worked  out  in  a very  interesting  way  the  problem  of  hos- 
pital construction,  complicated  in  central  and  northern  Siam 
liy  the  fact  that  every  patient  brings  some  members  of  his  family 
with  him  to  the  hospital  and  that  they  all  want  to  kee]i  their 
food  and  cooking  utensils  i-ound  about  the  ])atient’s  bed.  alleging 
that  their  j)o.sse.ssions  are  safe  only  there.  Dr.  Shellman  has 
built  a house  sqjarate  from  but  connected  with  the  hospital,  with 
a .small  room,  with  lock  and  key.  assigned  to  each  patient,  to 
which  he  is  able  to  insist  that  all  the  things  which  have  been 
only  breeding  places  for  disease  germs  in  the  wards,  mu.st  be  re 
moved.  And  the  women  of  the  station  take  their  jiart  heartily  in 
.school  and  hosj)ital  and  church. 

Our  Sunday  in  Pitsanuloke  was  a full  day  with  church  in  the 
morning  following  the  Sunday-school  .service,  interruptesl  only 
a little  by  a dog  fight  in  the  middle  aisle  of  the  little  o])en  chapel, 
and  not  at  all  by  a rooster  tight  immediately  before  the  front 
door,  witnessed  only  by  us  who  sat  on  the  jdatforin  and  by  one 
small,  naked  youngster  of  five  or  six  who  looked  .solemnly  on  the 
encounter.  Soldiers  from  the  barracks  passing  by  stop])ed  for  a 
while  to  listen  but  did  not  come  in.  Soldiers  in  groujts  are  not 
allowed  to  attend  i)ublic  meetings  in  Siam.  In  the  afternoon  we 
talked  and  j)rayed  together  about  the  strengthening  and  exten- 
sion of  the  work  and  I wish  we  could  helj)  the  church  at  home 
to  feel  in  sT)me  deej)er  way  the  need  of  interce.ssion  in  behalf  of 
the.se  far-otf.  lonely  workers.  In  the  evening  the  young  j)eople 
met  for  their  (’hristian  Endeavor  Society  gathering  which  Me 
Pin  led.  As  we  sang  together  the  (’hristian  hymns  we  could  hear 
from  the  barracks  near  by  the  sustained  and  not  unmu.sical 
chanting  of  the  trooj)s  a.s.  after  the  new  fashions  which  are  pre- 
vailing in  Siam  the.se  days,  they  sang  together  their  Buddhist 
prayers.  We  went  on  to  the  North  Siam  Mission  the  next  day, 
returning  to  Pitsanuloke  some  weeks  later  and  we  are  now  on 
our  way  from  Siam  to  the  Philipi)ines,  but  the  deep  murmur  of 
that  barracks  chant  is  still  in  our  ears  and  in  our  hearts,  and  I 
thiidv  we  shall  hear  it  always,  not  as  the  i)rayer  to  Buddha  which 

IG 


it  was  meant  to  be,  bnt  as  a ciy  to  Christ  and  a call  to  all  who 
call  Christ  Lord. 

E.  E.  S. 


(4)  THE  PLAIN  OF  PUAE 

S.  S.  “Katong,”  Gulf  of  Siam, 
July  17,  1915. 

The  traveler  in  Siam  bound  northward  to  the  Laos,  now  called 
the  North  Siam  Mission,  travels  all  day  from  Bangkok  on  the 
comfortable,  German  built,  broad  gauge  railroad  across  wide 
alluvial  j>lains,  past  ])alm  trees  and  banana  groves  and  ruined 
jiagodas,  and  thonsands  of  water  butl'aloes,  the  great  agricultural 
work  animal  of  Siam,  and  arrives  in  the  evening  at  the  end  of 
the  first  section  of  the  railroad,  Pitsanuloke.  Trains  do  not 
run  as  yet  at  night  in  Siam.  The  next  morning  on  a smaller 
train  of  inferior  cars  the  tiaiveler  resumes  his  journey,  and  within 
a few  hours  the  wide,  cultivated  plains  give  ])lace  to  jungle  and 
forest,  and  the  road  climbs  u]>  by  ravine  and  water  course  over 
the  hills  tliat  sc*j)arate  Nortli  and  South  Siam.  Tliere  is  a hot, 
stifling  funnel  near  fhe  to])  and  then  the  traveler  comes  out  into 
a distinctly  different  air  and  feels  at  once  its  freshness  and  vi- 
tality. We  felt  this  <litference  all  the  time  we  were  in  the  North 
Siam  Mi.ssion  and  were  conscious  just  as  shar])ly  of  the  reverse 
change  when  we  ])as.sed  back  southward  over  the  hills  again.  Be- 
yond these  hills  to  the  north  o])ened  o)it  the  great  Brae  plain. 
Tin*  city  of  Biau*  is  in  the  midclle  of  the  ])lain  and  our  I*resby- 
terian  mission  com])onnd  is  on  the  edge  of  the  city  looking  off 
across  tlie  j)lain  to  a beautiful  range  of  mountains  to  the  east. 
The  old  com])onnd  was  on  the  other  side  of  the  city  on  a high 
bank  over  the  river,  but  in  flood  times  witli  the  teak  logs  driving 
down,  fhe  river  dcwoured  the  comi)onnd  by  such  huge  annual  ex- 
cavations that  it  was  necessary  to  leave  the  old  s])ot  with  its 
beautiful  trees  and  even  dearer  associations. 

It  is  a great  jiity  that  the  surplus  waters  which  ])our  destruc- 
tively down  the  streams  can  not  be  conserved  and  s])read  out  over 
the  district.  Again  and  again  the  Brae  ])lain  has  suffered  from 
famine.  The  one  great  sta])le  article  of  food  and  tra(k\is  rice, 
and  no  other  grain  reipiires  water  in  such  alunidance  and  regu- 
larity. With  famine  comes  always  disease  and  ])overty  that  lasts 
after  the*  famine  is  gone.  On  the  heels  of  the  last  hunger  came 
malignant  malaria  and  it  is  not  sur])rising  that  in  the  hearts  of 
the  sim])le  peojile  that  dread  of  devils  which  is  the  real  religion 
of  northeiii  Siam,  was  intensified,  and  that  from  that  dread  the 
gospel  should  be  felt  to  be  just  what  it  was  in  the  days  when  it 
tirst  came,  glad  tidings  of  freedom  and  deliverance. 

We  sjtenr  thiee  happy  days  in  the  Brae  station.  Two  of  the 
fathers  of  the  work,  l)r.  Peoples  and  Di-.  Taylor,  had  come  over 
from  Nan,  a hai-d  journey  over  mountain  roads  and  through 
flooded  streams,  for  a joint  conference  ofer  the  work  of  the  two 
stations.  Nan  has  had  the  great  advantage  of  more  continuit}' 

17 


of  missionary  occupation.  Nothing  is  more  evident  on  the  mis- 
sion field  than  the  advantage  of  keeping  good  missionaries  per- 
manently resident  in  one  station.  To  move  them  involves  inevit- 
able loss.  The}'  can  not  carry  with  them  the  influence  and  friend- 
ships which  they  have  won  nor  can  they  tran.smit  them  to  their 
sncces.sors.  In  Asia,  more  even  than  at  home,  stability  and  per- 
manence are  necessary  elements  of  efficiency.  Of  the  present 
mission  staff  in  Prae,  no  one,  I think,  has  been  there  longer  than 
six  years.  In  spite  of  all  drawbacks,  however,  there  has  been 
already  real  fruitage,  and  the  problems,  both  here  and  in  Nan, 
are  the  problems  not  of  a failing  but  of  a progre.ssing  work. 

It  would  be  a good  thing  if  the  home  church  could  be  dropped 
down  of  an  afternoon  in  the  Prae  station  to  share  in  the  solution 
of  these  problems.  One  had  to  do  with  the  question  of  the  use 
of  baptism.  Baptism  was  found  to  be  the  most  distinctive  and 
impressive  sign  that  a man  had  broken  with  heathenism,  espec- 
ially with  the  worship  of  s])irits,  and  was  prepared  now  to  go  in 
the  Christian  way  and  to  trust  Jesus  Christ  to  deliver  him  from 
the  devils  of  whom  he  had  always  lived  in  fear.  But  many  were 
prepared  to  go  as  far  as  this  who  had  no  knowledge  of  Christian 
truth,  who  had  had  no  opportnnit}'  as  yet  to  prove  the  stability 
of  their  Christian  faith  or  the  worthiness  of  their  Christian  char- 
acter, and  who  if  admitted  to  the  Lord’s  table  and  entrusted 
with  the  Christian  name,  might  bring  reproach  upon  it  and  might 
make  Christianity  a scandal.  Should  these  men  be  baptized  and 
then  taught  and  admitted  later  to  the  Lord’s  table,  or  should 
baptism  be  deferred  until  men  were  deemed  worthy  of  both  sacra- 
ments? A second  problem  had  to  do  with  the  Chinese  Chris- 
tians. Wherever  the  railroad  comes  in  Siam  the  Chinese  traders 
pour  in  after  it.  A Chiue.se  evangelist  had  visited  Prae,  travel- 
ing at  his  own  charges,  and  had  brought  twenty-five  of  the  Chin- 
ese to  the  church  for  baptism.  They  knew  little  Lao  and  the 
missionaries  knew  no  Chinese.  Should  they  be  admitted  and  it 
so  should  they  be  required  absolutely  to  close  their  shops  on  Sun- 
day and  be  disciplined  if  they  did  not  do  so?  To  close  their  shops 
meant  the  surrender  at  once  of  one-seventh  of  their  income  and 
perhaps  more  as  it  threw  them  behind  in  a competition  in  busi- 
ness sharper  than  anything  we  know.  Many  of  them,  moreover, 
were  only  the  agents  of  non-Christian  Chinese  principals,  whose 
business  they  could  not  control.  Still  a thii*d  problem  which  is 
real  in  every  mission  field  is  how  to  get  native  Christians  to  rea- 
lize that  the  propagation  of  Christianity  is  the  duty  of  every 
Christian,  especially  when  so  many  of  them  are  so  ignorant  and 
know  so  little,  and  when,  in  defense  of  what  Christianity  they 
have,  they  must  often  bear  such  subtle  and  taunting  persecution. 
These  and  many  other  questions  we  met  in  these  conferences. 

It  is  evident  that  the  work  at  Nan  is  now  well  staffed  and 
well  equipped  and  the  new  force  located  at  Prae  is  taking  hold 
energetically,  Mr.  Callender  of  the  itinerating  work  for  which  he 
is  admirably  suited.  Dr.  Park  of  the  new  hospital,  and  Mrs.  Park 

18 


of  the  girls’  school  in  the  aibseuce  of  any  single  woman  mission- 
ary, and  Mr.  MacMullan  of  the  boys’  school.  Hampered  finan- 
cially by  some  overexpenditures  in  the  last  few  years,  which  must 
be  made  up  out  of  their  new  budget,  they  are  planning  gravely 
for  new  work,  and  have  before  them  as  great  an  opportunity  as 
missionaries  could  desire.  They  enjo}^  the  friendship  of  the  peo- 
ple, from  the  Governor  down.  We  called  with  them  upon  the 
Governor,  who  expressed,  pi  the  courteous  way  which  is  charac- 
teristic of  the  Siamese,  the  friendly  attitude  of  Siam  toward  all 
foreigners,  but  its  special  friendliness  towards  those  who,  like 
the  missionaries,  had  come  to  Siam  to  learn  the  language  of  the 
people,  to  understand  their  Iiearts  and  to  do  good.  It  is  still, 
as  it  was  in  the  days  of  old,  the  men  who  love  who  will  conquer 
and  nothing  can  conquer  them. 

The  great  highway  of  the  plain,  from  Den  Chai  on  the  railroad 
seventeen  miles  from  Prae,  runs  just  in  front  of  the  mission 
compound.  An  unceasing  tide  of  life  moves  to  and  fro  upon  it. 
Bullock  carts,  pack  trains  of  oxen  or  of  ponies,  elephants  and  men 
and  women.  To  whoever  will  come  in,  the  gates  of  the  compound 
are  open,  and  to  whoever  is  in  need  those  ivho  dwell  upon  the 
compound  will  go  out.  They  are  like  the  man  of  old  “who  lived 
by  the  side  of  the  road  and  was  a friend  of  man.” 

K.  E.  S. 


(u)  A GRAVE  IX  THE  .JUNGLE 

S.  S.  “Katong,”  Gulf  of  Siam, 
July  17,  1915. 

In  a bit  of  sparse  and  forlorn  jungle  on  the  outskirts  of  the 
citj'  of  Nakon  Lani])ang,  near  the  yellow,  winding  waters  of  the 
Me  Wang  Hiver  in  northern  Siam,  we  stood  a few  daj^s  ago  be- 
side a lonely  grave.  It  was  niark(*d  by  no  stone  or  proper  monu- 
ment. A i)lain,  low  bi-ick  jilatform  alone  covered  the  resting 
place  of  Jonathan  Wilson,  the  sweet  singer  of  the  songs  of  Is- 
rael to  the  Lao  jteoi)le.  For  more  than  lialf  a century  he  had 
worked  first  at  (’hieng  Mai  and  then  here  at  Lakon,  speaking 
gently  of  Christ  to  tho.se  who  did  not  know  Him,  teaching  in  the 
faith  those  whom  it  was  given  him  to  win  to  the  Saviour,  but 
delighting  most  of  all,  in  the  home  that  he  built,  looking  across 
the  river  to  the  city,  to  tran.slate  the  great  hymns  of  the  church 
into  simple  and  beautiful  Lao,  and  to  give  a ])ure  music  fragrant 
with  the  sweetness  of  his  own  character  to  the  church  in  north- 
ern Siam.  At  his  death  he  charged  his  fellow  missionaries  that 
they  were  not  to  bury  him  in  the  little  European  cemetery  beside 
the  hospital,  but  to  lay  him  in  the  jungle  among  the  native  Chris- 
tians and  to  leave  him  there  among  the  simple  folk  he  loved  until 
in  the  Besurrection  the  Lord  of  li|e  should  call  and  Jonathan 
Wilson  in  the  midst  of  his  Hock  should  rise  up  and  go  out  to 
meet  Him. 

But  though  no  suitable  monument  such  as  surely  should  mark 
his  grave  has  yet  been  raised,  there  is  rich  memorial  to  Dr,  Wil- 

19 


son  in  1lio  liyiims  wliicli  are  snn<;  all  over  northern  Siam  ami  in 
the  work  which  has  };rown  np  here  in  Lakon  which  for  so  many 
rears  had  heen  his  home.  Miss  Brnnner  and  Miss  Buck  and 
M iss  M'oifhinj*ton  live  in  his  old  hous(',  and  conduct,  Mi.ss  Brun- 
ner the  admirable  school  for  Lao  {^irls  in  the  nice  adjoining 
building,  and  Miss  Buck  and  Miss  Worthington  the  Kenneth  Mc- 
Kenzie School  for  boys  at  another  compound  half  a mile  away, 
where  it  stands  with  its  beautiful  brick  walls  and  massive  pillars, 
one  of  the  most  imjuessive  bnihlings'  of  the  missions  in  Siam, 
dust  adjoining  the  gills’  school  are  the  physician’s  residence  and 
the  hos])ital,  admirably  organized  and  managed  by  Dr.  Crooks, 
;ind  at  the  boys’  school  comjionnd  are  the  residences  of  Mr.  Vin- 
cent, who  has  general  charge  of  the  school  and  of  the  industrial 
work  which  he  has  develoited  in  a tannery  and  shoe  shoji,  and  of 
Mr.  llartzel  who  is  in  charge  of  the  evangelization  of  a district 
great  enough  t(»  overtax  Jhe  time  and  strength  of  three  men. 

The  railroad  which  is  being  steadily  i»nshed  from  Bangkok  to 
Chieng  Mai.  has  not  yet  reached  Lakon.  Regular  trains  are  run- 
ning only  as  far  as  Pa  Kali.  From  there  the  German  engineer's 
who  ai'e  bnilding  the  road  kindly  sent  us  forward  two  long  stages 
by  con.struction  train  to  Meh  Chang,  whence  we  r-eache<l  Lakon 
by  jionies  in  a day  and  a half.  1 shall  never  forget  the  .scene  at 
the  little  im]»rovised  station  at  Pa  Kah  as  onr  train  came  in  just 
as  the  evening  shadows  were  beginning  to  lengthen.  All  around 
was  the  great  unbroken  for'est.  Teak  logs  from  old  cuttings  were 
lying  where  thev  had  lain  for  years  in  a little  mountain  str-eam 
waiting  to  be  driven  ont  by  Hood  and  elejihant,  i-eaching  Bang- 
kok ten  years  jierhaps  after  they  had  first  been  felled.  The  bam- 
boo and  thatch  lints  of  the  railroad  laborers  nestled  together  in 
a r-aw  foi-est  clearing.  The  neater  houses  of  the  (terman  engineers 
stood  among  the  trees  on  the  hillside  above.  .Back  from  the  sta- 
tion were  tlie  encani])ments  of  the  pack  trains  with  the  bullocks 
waiting  to  carry  freight  over  the  trails  and  the  mountain  jiasses 
into  the  open  jilains  beyond.  Wild-eyed  jieople  of  half  a dozen 
tribes,  most  of  whom  had  never  seen  a railroad  train  before, 
looked  on  with  wonder.  The  Chinese  and  Lao  coolies  who  were 
building  the  road  had  finished  their  day's  work.  Nearby  stood 
the  Eurasian  contractors  or  section  snjierintendents.  It  was  a 
strange  mixture  of  race  and  sjieech.  of  old  and  new,  of  the  forces 
that  resist  or  only  jiassively  submit,  and  the  forces  that  change 
and  advance  and  create.  Very  much  of  what  had  been  done  was 
crude  and  ini])erfect  and  would  have  to  be  done  again.  The  cost 
of  maintenance  and  repair  would  far  exceed  the  cost  of  fir.st  con- 
struction. In  front  stood  the  great  and  ancient  forest,  laced  with 
lianas,  dark  and  unmoved.  Behind  lay  the  fresh  embankment 
and  the  new  laid  rails.  “Here  I rest,”  said  the  forest,  “let  no 
man  disturb  me.”  “Here  I come,”  said  life,  the  ever-onward. 
never-resting  life  of  man,  “make  way  for  me.’’  One  could  not 
have  asked  for  a more  vivid  j)icture  of  the  missionary  enterprise 
or  a clearer  re])resentation  of  its  deejiest  problems  than  we  saw 

20 


that  afternoon  at  Pa  Kali  as  the  long  sunbeams  lay  athwart  the 
tree  trunks  and  the  night  gave  the  forest  respite  from  man  only 
until  the  day  should  break  again. 

Blit  long  years  before  the  railroad  came  to  Pa  Kah,  before  ever 
there  was  a railroad  in  iSiam,  the  missionaries  had  come  to  Lakon 
and  begun  their  work  of  hewing  away  the  jungle  and  letting  in 
light. 

The  work  at  Lakon  met  ns  before  ever  we  reached  Lakon.  In 
front  of  a Buddhist  temjile  on  the  highway  into  the  city,  the  boys’ 
and  girls’  .schools  were  waiting,  bright  in  their  many-colored  gar- 
ments, and  at  the  citv  gates  the  fathers  of  the  church  were  watch- 
ing and  we  all  jias'sed  togetlier  into  the  city.  It  is  the  second 
city  in  imiiortance  in  the  north  and  the  old  Lao  t’how  or  Chieftain 
who  .still  live.s,  honored  and  ])ensioned  by  the  Siamese  govern- 
ment, is  a reminder  of  the  former  days  when  these  northern  jiro- 
vinces  were  .sejiarate  kingdoms  jiaying  an  annual  tribute  in  Bang- 
kok but  otherwise  enjoying  a jiractically  inde])endent  sovereignty. 
With  most  of  these  old  (’hows  the  missionai-ies  established  good 
friendshijis,  and  1 think  there  is  not  one  of  them  who  does  not 
think  and  s]»nak  of  the  missionaries  and  their  work  with  respect 
and  sometimes  even  with  affection.  Of  cour.sc  it  is  chietly  medi- 
cal and  educational  work,  and  such  enterjiriscs  as  the  tannery 
and  leather-working  that  specially  apjieal  to  them,  but  they  knoiv 
very  well  that  it  is  a still  deeper  motive  than  that  of  ])hilanthro])y 
which  brings  the  missionary,  and  neither  they  nor  the  Siamese 
government  have  oftim  hindered  in  tin*  slightest  the  efforts  of  the 
mi.ssionaries  to  bring  to  the  ]»eo])le  that  living  jtower  of  the  gos- 
])el  which  has  jtnaluced  oui-  schools  and  hos])itals,  and  which 
these  in  their  turn  arc*  s(*eking  to  commend  to  these  j»eo])le  of 
Siam. 

I met  an  old,  old  man  near  the  boys’  school  and  was  introduced 
to  him  as  one  of  the  (*arlv  Christians.  I asked  him  what  it  was 
that  had  brought  him  to  -lesns  ('hrist,  and  he  said  it  was  the 
goodness  of  (’hrist  in  deliv(*ring  him  from  the  fear  of  evil  sjiirits 
and  es|»ecially  from  the  di-ead  of  witchci-aft.  He  could  not  tell 
what  a joy  it  was  to  have  found  such  a mighty  Saviour.  For 
more  than  twenty  years  now  In*  had  lived  in  this  freedom  by 
which  Christ  sets  nn*n  fri*<*.  There  are  thousands  of  others  in 
this  great  plain  of  Lakcni  who  an*  waiting  to  hear  the  good  news 
of  this  deliverance*. 

B.  F.  S. 

(b)  THK  woKK  or  (;oi)  ix  ciiik.xo  .m.\i 

S.  S.  “Katong,”  (Jnlf  of  Siam, 
July  17,  lOL"). 

Chieng  ilai  is  one  of  tlntse  cities  to  which  any  one  who  is  in- 
terestwl  in  the  missionary  work  of  onr  church  looks  forward 
with  an  eagerness  and  e.xjiectation  which  we  always  feel  in  draw- 
ing near  to  great  associations.  .\nd  these  feelings  are  made  in- 
tense and  solemn  as.  entering  tin*  city  fi-om  the  south  one  jiasses 

21 


by  the  beautiful  little  cemetery  in  which  s*tands  the  plain,  white 
cross  marking  the  resting  place  of  Daniel  McGilvary.  For  more 
than  half  a century  Dr.  ^IcGilvary  lived  and  workerl  in  Chieng 
Mai,  and  not  in  Chieng  Mai  only,  but  over  the  whole  of  northern 
Siam.  No  younger  missionary  ever  surpassed  him  for  tireless 
energ>^  in  itineration.  Even  as  an  old  man  he  still  went  to  and 
fro,  honored  and  beloved  wherever  he  went,  preaching  Christ  to 
everyone  and  making  friends  for  his  Master.  It  is  a great  thing 
for  a mi.s.sion  station  to  have  as  its  inhei-itance  the  example  and 
spirit  and  the  fruitage  of  the  toil  of  such  a mi.ssionary.  Other 
men  labored  Avith  Dr.  McGilvarv"  in  the  .sowing  and  others  have 
entered  into  the  reaping,  but  all  alike  have  rejoiced  to  join  in 
recognizing  him  and  his  faith  and  loA^e  as  the  source  of  the  great 
work  in  Chieng  Mai  and  throughout  northern  Siam. 

On  our  visit  we  made  a glorious  entn"  into  the  Chieng  Mai 
field  at  its  chief  out-station  of  Lampoon.  There  at  the  bridge 
without  the  city,  !Mr.  Freeman  met  us  as  we  came  down  from  the 
mountain  passes  and  out  across  the  broad  sun-blistered  plain. 
The  children  of  three  or  four  schools  had  assembled  with  their 
songs  and  banners.  The  older  people  of  the  church  had  come  with 
them  and  we  made  a great  procession  which,  under  Mr.  Freeman’s 
leadership,  marched  straight  through  the  city  and  the  market 
places  to  shoAv  the  people  of  Lampoon  that  there  was  no  mean  or 
inconsiderable  number  of  Christians  among  them.  Mr.  Freeman 
marched  us  right  into  the  chapel,  which  we  packed  to  the  doors, 
and  there  an  old  man,  son  of  one  of  the  earliest  Christians,  gave 
us  welcome. 

The  following  day  was  one  long  series  of  greetings  all  the  way 
from  Lampoon  into  Chieng  Mai.  Mr.  Collins  took  us  fir.st  a little 
off  the  road  to  the  Bethlehem  Church,  of  500  members,  where  on 
a week  day  morning  a large  company  had  gathered  to  greet  us 
in  their  beautiful  new  buiding  of  bamboo  and  thatch,  built  by 
their  own  hands.  Then  Dr.  Campbell  took  us  a little  further  on 
across  the  rice  fields  to  the  church  at  Ban  Tah.  As  we  came  in 
sight  a long  line  of  boys  stretched  across  the  fields,  waved  flags 
to  us  and  we  heard  over  the  plain  the  familiar  strains  in  Lao  of 
“There’s  a royal  banner  given  for  display  to  the  soldiers  of  the 
cross.”  Behind  the  boys  the  older  folk  were  waiting  and  we 
rode  into  a beautiful  large  church  which  the  people  had  just 
completed  and  which  was  crowded  full  of  men,  women  and  chil- 
dren to  greet  us.  This  was  in  the  center  of  the  section  ravaged 
by  the  malaria  epidemic  a few  years  ago.  and  the  influence  which 
Christianity  has  now  secured  has  been  due  to  the  love  and  skill 
and  tireless  service  with  which  Dr.  Campbell  worked  among  the 
people,  encouraging  them  to  break  away  from  the  worship  of  evil 
spirits  and  the  enslavement  of  superstitious  medical  ideas,  and 
to  trust  Christ  and  to  use  the  means  which  in  Christ’s  name  he 
was  ready  to  supply.  Now  in  no  small  measure  due  to  this  re- 
markable work,  Itr.  Campbell  has  more  than  three  thousand  com- 
municants and  inquirers  under  instruction  in  the  city  church  and 

22 


adjoining  villages.  The  moral  fruitage  of  the  work  is  already 
bearing  testimony  to  the  truth  of  Christianity,  and  Ban  Tab 
itself,  formerly  a nest  of  cattle  robbers,  is  now  becoming  a clean 
and  peaceful  village.  After  Ban  Tali  we  stopped  at  one  more 
chapel  where  an  old  saint  gave  us  welcome  with  almost  embar- 
rassing rapture,  and  then  we  passed  on  into  Chieng  Mai.  Near 
the  little  white  cross  where  Dr.  McGih'arv^  rests,  the  boys  of  the 
Prince  Royal’s  College,  with  Mr.  Harris,  met  us,  and  further  on 
the  girls  of  the  girls’  school  and  the  hundred  and  more  children 
of  Mrs.  Campbell’s  Day  School,  which  bears  the  name  of  Stanley 
Phraner,  were  waiting  for  us  before  the  large  white  church  on  the 
river  bank,  which  is  one  of  the  most  conspicuous,  and  to  us  one 
of  the  most  attractive,  things  in  the  beautiful  landscape  of  Chieng 
Mai. 

Our  hearts  overflowed  with  praise  and  joy  on  Sunday  morning 
when  we  went  for  the  morning  service  to  the  church.  It  was 
packed  from  wall  to  wall,  with  people  about  the  doors  and  the 
windows,  and  many  more  outside  who  could  not  get  near.  And 
tliese  were  Christian  people  and  their  children,  and  they  received 
with  joy  and  gladness  tlie  greetings  which  we  brought  them  from 
tlie  church  at  home,  and  the  appeal  from  that  great  cloud  of 
witnes.ses,  ^IcGilvaru'  and  Wilson  and  Phraner,  and  their  own 
saints  and  martyrs  Nan  Cliai  and  Nan  Tntah  and  Noi  Sunya. 
Blessed  is  the  church  that  is  rich  with  such  memories. 

Our  week  in  Chieng  ^lai  was  all  too  short  for  the  talks  with 
missioiiaries  and  Lao  Cliristians,  the  study  of  all  the  institutions 
and  the  visits  wliich  we  needed  to  make.  Of  these  last  none  was 
more  pleasant  tlian  the  call  on  the  Lord  Lieutenant  of  all  these 
northern  provinces  who  resides  in  Cliieng  ^lai.  His  Excellency 
Cliao  Phya  Surasi  Visitliasakdi,  who  was  unreserved  in  his  com 
mendation  of  tlie  work  which  the  missionaries  had  done  and  the 
spirit  in  which  they  had  done  it.  In  addition  to  the  institutions 
which  T have  mentioned,  there  were  the  hospital,  now  under  Dr. 
Mason’s  most  competent  charge,  the  press,  made  self-supporting 
by  Mr.  Collins,  the  new  theological  school  given  by  Mr.  Severance, 
whose  beautiful  building  is  nearing  comjdetion  and  which  Mr. 
Gillies  is  guiding  with  rare  ability,  and  the  leper  asylum  which 
has  been  built  up  by  Dr.  McKean  until  it  has  become  one  of  the 
most  wondeidul  institutions  in  Siam.  The  morning  that  we  were 
there  2,5  lepers  were  baptized  and  welcomed  to  the  Lord’s  Table. 
I think  the  highest  honor  T have  ever  had  in  my  life  was  to  be 
allowed  to  hold  the  baptismal  bowl  out  of  which  these  lepers 
were  baptized.  I am  taking  it  home  as  a priceless  memorial.  Of 
their  own  accord  the  lepers  brought  to  this  communion  service 
a gift  of  ,3()  Rupees  given  out  of  their  poverty  to  help  lepers  in 
other  lands  wlio  might  be  more  unfortunate  than  they. 

We  came  away  from  Chieng  Mai  with  grateful  and  rejoicing 
hearts.  A mighty  work  of  God  has  been  done  here  by  men  of 
God  and  the  noble  .succession  of  the  pa.st  has  not  failed.  We  can 
only  transmit  to  the  church  at  home  the  closing  words  of  a letter 

23 


wliicli  the  tlii-ee  oidained  Lao  ministers  j^ave  ns  as  we  came  away. 
“The  fields  are  very  broad  and  tlie  }jrain  is  yellow.  We  beg  that 
the  Christians  of  America  may  work  together  with  ns  in  order 
that  the  grain  may  be  garnei-ed  quickly.  Please  do  not  forget 
ns.  We  beg  that  the  members  of  the  great  foreign  board  will 
carry  this  message  to  yon  C'hristians  in  America.  May  the  love 
of  Jehovah  dwell  in  yonr  hearts  nnceasinglv.” 

K.  K.  S. 


(7)  T^XDKIi  Till-;  I>A(;oi).VS  OF  I’r:T(,'H.\BURI 

S.  S.  “Katong,”  (fnlf  of  Siam. 

July  1ft,  lf)15. 

As,  from  either  the  north  or  the  south,  the  traveler  draws 
near  they  rise  up  before  him.  these  ]»agodas  of  Petchabnri  on  the 
high  verdure  clad  hill  which  looks  down  over  the  wide-.stretching 
paddy  fields,  sf)utheastward  to  the  sea  and  northwestward  to  the 
hills  which  begin  the  great  mountainous,  undeveloped  country  of 
western  Siam.  The  ]>agodas  look  down  u])on  the  plain  but  they 
do  not  command  it.  Other  forces  are  at  work  there  and  they 
have  crept  u])  now  to  the  very  foot  of  the  hill  on  which  the 
pagodas  stand  and  have  built  tliere.  next  door  to  the  imuiastery, 
a training  school  which  is  to  send  boys  out  to  teach  Christian 
schools  wherever  they  can  find  a foothobl  in  the  jdain.  And  Dr. 
Eakin,  who  has  chargt*  of  the  itinerating  woik  in  a tiebl  two  hun- 
dred miles  long  reaching  fi-om  the  north  of  Petchabnri  to  Koh 
Lak  in  the  south,  has  a fhousaud  communicants  and  impiirers  in 
preparation  for  ba])tism  in  sixty  villages  in  this  gi-eat  field.  From 
the  j)agodas  on  the  hill,  moreover,  not  one  hand  has  be<m  lifte<i 
to  heal  the  sickness  and  disease  of  the  ])eoi»le.  and  the  great  idols 
sitting  there  in  their  ]>assive  calm  are  untouched  bv  any  sound  of 
suffering  or  call  of  need  and  pain.  In  their  high  retreat  aloof 
fi-om  men  theii'  only  message  is  that  all  is  vain,  that  his  joy  is 
best  who  neither  thinks  nor  feels  nor  laughs  nor  cries  but.  be- 
yond desires,  has  forgot  himself  and  all  mankind.  A mile  away 
where  the  crowds  of  humanity  j)ass,  on  the  river  bank  where  the 
boats  can  bring  the  sick  and  helpless,  the  mission  hos]»ital  stands 
with  it  doors  wide  open,  the  beds  lining  its  simple  wards,  the 
operating  room  one  of  the  best  equipj»ed  in  all  our  hospitals  in 
Siam,  and  a surgeon’s  skill  waiting  to  do  whatever  can  be  done 
to  relieve  sutfering  and  distress.  We  should  have  been  very  glad 
while  in  Petchabnri  to  climb  the  hill  and  visit  the  images  of 
Buddha  and  the  high  pagodas,  but  our  interest  was  in  the  ])laiu 
and  the  peoj)le  of  the  plain  and  the  market  jdaces  of  the  city 
“where  cross  the  busy  ways  of  men,”  and  there  we  went  with 
Dr.  Eakin  and  his  son  Paul  who  has  come  back  as  a missionary 
to  the  land  of  his  birth  and  has  taken  up  with  his  father  the  work 
in  this  great  field  of  Petchabnri. 

The  city  was  just  recovering  at  the  time  of  our  visit  from  a 
disastrous  tire.  With  the  excejition  of  the  teiu])les  and  the  few 
modern  buildings,  Siamese  construction  has  always  been,  and  is 

24 


now.  bamboo  and  thatch  or  at  the  best  of  wood.  This  is  one 
reason  why  the  ancient  cities  have  absolutely  disajjpeared  except 
for  the  pagodas,  and  it  makes  tire  a dreadful  peril  and  a not  in- 
frequent one,  as  the  cooking  is  done  inside  the  inflammable  houses 
on  little  platforms  of  earth  and  stone.  Last  year  a great  Are 
swept  the  city  of  Bangkok  and  destroyed  .'“:S0fl,0fl0.00  worth  of 
property,  and  not  long  before  our  visit,  half  the  flue  market  sec- 
tion of  Petchaburi,  with  some  of  its  best  old  temples,  had  been 
destro}'ed.  The  Are  burned  right  up  to  one  of  our  mission  chap- 
els, a simple  frame  structure,  and  then  sto])j)ed.  The  other 
chapel  it  wiped  out  but  to  the  great  gain  of  the  work  as  it  will 
now  be  possible  to  rebuild  ou  the  same  site  but  witli  better  ex- 
I)osures  and  acces.s.  In  addition  to  these  two  chapels  there  is  a 
church  in  Petchaburi  built  ou  the  edge  of  the  town  nearest  to 
the  high  hill  and  its  pagodas.  For  two  generations  it  has  stood 
there  proclaiming  its  mes.sage  by  the  side  of  the  road  along 
which  the  multitudes  have  gone  on  their  pilgrimages  to  the  i)ago- 
das  on  the  toj)  of  the  hill  and  to  the  idols  there  who  have  never 
heard  one  word  that  has  been  said  or  spoken  a single  word  in 
reply. 

Petchaburi  is  the  next  to  the  oldest  of  our  mission  stations  in 
Siam.  Dr.  McGilvarv  entered  ui)ou  his  work  here  and  it  was 
from  this  station  that  he  went  northward  in  ISA.l  to  begin  the 
work  among  the  Lao  ]»eople.  Dr.  McFarland  began  here  and  it 
was  from  this  station  tlmt  In*  was  called  by  the  King  to  lay  the 
foundations  of  the  educational  woik  of  the  government  in  Bang- 
kok. Dr.  F.  P.  Dunlaj)  began  here  that  long  work  of  loving  ser- 
vice of  the  people  of  Siam  in  which  he  has  been  engaged  for  more 
than  forty  years,  which  has  taken  him  far  and  wide  over  southern 
Siam  and  made  him,  among  the  Siame.se,  the  most  beloved  for- 
eigner in  the  country.  The  missionary  residences  still  occupied 
at  the  hos])ital  and  girls'  .school  com]»ound  wen*  built  by  these 
early  missionaries  at  the  beginning. 

The  work  has  not  had  an  unbroken  continuity.  That  is  one  of 
the  great  j)roblenis  of  all  mission  work,  namely  how  to  .secure  its 
steady  devehqunent  uninterrupted  by  the  transfer  of  mission- 
aries from  one  station  to  another  or  by  their  home  furloughs. 
The  Bonian  Fatholics  have  solved  the  ])roblem  by  s<*nding  out 
their  missionaries  unmarried  and  for  life  with  the  understand- 
ing that  they  will  nevei-  come  home,  but  that  is  not  onr  way,  and 
having  a ditlerent  way.  we  mnst  somehow  devise  a solution  for 
our  i)roblem  .so  that  the  work  will  not  be  constantly  broken  uj) 
and  its  jtolicy  changed.  There  have  bet*n  long  j)eriods,  for  ex- 
ample, when  our  girls’  .sehool  lias  been  entirely  clo.sed.  Now, 
fortunately,  it  is  oj)en  umler  the  competent  charge  of  Miss  Mer- 
cer, and  is  full  of  bright  girls,  small,  after  the  fashion  of  Siamese 
schools,  where  the  girls  are  not  allowed  to  stay  .as  long  as  they 
are  with  ns.  But  even  the  little  ones  think  their  own  thoughts. 
"Why  was  it  that  Saul  hated  David?”  asked  Mi.ss  Mercer,  ex- 
amining the  school  on  the  Bible  lesson  the  morning  that  we  were 

25 


present  at  chapel  service.  “I  think,”  said  one  demure  little  tot 
in  reply,  “it  was  because  the  women  praised  him.” 

Not  far  from  Petchahuri  tliere  is  a large  population  of  Lao 
people.  They  were  brought  down  from  the  north  several  centur- 
ie.s  ago  and  planted  as  a colony  of  .serfs.  After  all  these  genera- 
tions they  retain  still  their  distinctive  dress  and  language  and  are 
as  sharply  separate  from  the  Siamese  as  an  island  in  the  sea. 
Such  a continuance  of  racial  isolation  would  not  have  been  pos- 
sible among  the  tremendous  as.similative  forces  which  operate 
in  our  American  life.  Here  for  the  most  part,  inertia  conquers 
all  tendencies  to  change  or  the  tendencies  which  operate  do  so 
on  the  principle  of  maintaining  inertia.  What  but  a living  gos- 
pel can  ever  break  through  such  stagnancy  and  toi*por  and  up- 
heave men  and  society  with  the  vital  energies  of  life? 

Several  years  ago  two  American  boys  traveling  around  the 
world,  dropped  in  upon  Di*.  Eakin  and  asked  the  privilege  of 
accompanying  him  upon  one  of  his  trips  to  the  country.  Dr. 
Eakin  knew  nothing  of  them  but  he  cordiall}’  welcomed  them, 
little  knowing  what  power  those  two  boys  had  to  help  him,  but 
in  due  time  he  learned  when,  returning  home,  they  sent  him  not 
money  only  but  a great  tent  to  be  taken  with  him  for  public 
meetings  and  funds  for  halls  in  different  parts  of  his  field.  What 
those  boys  did,  in  a boy’s  way,  the  church  mu.st  do  in  her  way, 
steadfastly  and  unintermittently  taking  hold  and  never  letting 
go.  “I  hope,”  said  the  Chief  Priest  of  Siamese  Buddhism,  to  Dr. 
Eakin  when  together  we  called  upon  him  in  Bangkok  and  had 
a long  talk  about  Buddhism  and  Christianity,  “I  hope  that  you 
will  staj^  in  Siam.”  “I  shall,”  said  Dr.  Eakin  in  reply.  And 
Christianity  will  stay,  through  this  century,  through  all  the  time 
that  is  necessary  in  order  that  the  purposes  of  Christ  may  be 
accomplished. 

R.  E.  S. 


(8)  MISSIONS  IN  THE  CAPITAL  OF  SIAM 

S.  S.  “Katong,”  Gulf  of  Siam, 
July  19,  1915. 

Paris  is  not  France  and  Bangkok  is  not  Siam,  but  whoever 
would  maintain  the  affirmative  would,  I think,  have  a much 
easier  time  in  establishing  his  case  in  behalf  of  Bangkok.  About 
one  eighth  of  the  entire  population  of  Siam  is  found  in  the  Bang- 
kok Monthon  or  district.  It  is  the  only  municipality  in  the 
country  with  a distinct  administration  of  its  own  and  this  ad- 
ministration is  simply  a part  of  the  central  government  which, 
from  Bangkok,  completely  controls  every  aspect  of  the  life  of 
the  kingdom.  All  authority*  is  centered  here  and  all  oflScials  are 
appointed  here.  All  the  taxes  of  the  country  must  be  sent  to 
Bangkok  and  all  expenditures  made  by  the  central  government. 
Nowhere  else  in  the  world  is  there  a country  so  completely  and 
absolutely  centralized,  nor  people  whose  interests  of  govern- 
ment and  administration  are  focused  in  a single  city  as  those  of 

26 


the  Siamese  are  focused  in  Bangkok.  A missionary  work  which 
would  successfully  influence  this  uniisual  city  would  make  itself 
felt  to  the  ends  of  Siam.  Where  else  in  the  world  does  the  Chris- 
tian Church  have  presented  to  her  the  opportunity  in  a single 
community  of  moulding  a nation? 

But  the  elements  and  activities  of  life  in  Bangkok  are  such  as 
to  warn  any  church  that  undertakes  to  deal  with  them  against 
lightheartedne.ss  and  overconfidence.  It  is  a polyglot  population. 
There  are  two  hundred  thousand  Chinese,  speaking  many  dif- 
ferent dialects;  over  twenty  thousand  Indians  and  Malays,  Hin- 
dus and  Mohammedans.  There  are  sev  enteen  thousand  Buddhist 
priests  in  the  Monthon ; six  hundred  and  thirty  Buddhist  places 
of  worship  and  seventy-six  IMohammedan.  The  great  vices  which 
prey  upon  life  and  industry  are  more  powerful  and  deadly  by 
hir  than  in  tlie  country  villages.  Opium  is  a government  mon- 
opoly, freely  obtainable  by  the  people  and  yielding  last  year  a 
revenue  of  nearly  14,000,000  ticals  to  the  government.  Gambling 
and  lotteries  and  licensed  betting  gave  the  government  over  7,- 
000,000  ticals  more.  The  King  well  understands  the  deadly  ef- 
fects of  such  legalized  vices  and  will  gladly  repress  them  and 
forego  his  income  from  them  when  the  foreign  governments  are 
willing  to  revise  the  treaties  which  limit  Siam  to  the  collec- 
tion of  3 per  cent,  import  duties.  Meanwhile  these  and  other 
evdls  work  witli  fatal  effect  upon  the  seetliing  population  of  the 
city.  To  any  true  friend  of  Siam  it  is  a sad  and  depressing 
sight  wliich  one  can  see  every  afternoon  and  night  in  the  enor- 
mous licensed  gambling  halls  were  thousands  of  men  and  women 
crowd  around  the  games  upon  the  floor,  the  few  to  gain  but  the 
great  majority  to  lose  to  the  Chinese  millionaires  who  outbid  all 
others  for  the  gambling  concessions. 

Other  subtle  influences  o])erate  against  the  progress  and  the 
power  of  the  Christian  Church.  The  inertia  of  mere  loyalty  to 
tradition,  the  interweaving  of  Buddhi.sm  with  all  the  social  life 
of  the  people,  the  s])iritual  lethargv-  of  its  doctrine,  its  subtle 
j)ower  to  anesthetize  enthusiasm,  the  j>ressure  of  the  political 
system  in  a land  where  every  man’s  ambition  is  to  become  a part 
of  the  government  machinery,  these  and  many  other  influences 
have  wrought  de.structively  against  the  work  which  the  mission- 
aries have  been  doing  and  again  and  again  have  drawn  away  the 
life  blood  of  the  Church  to  grow  thin  and  die  out,  sometimes  in 
the  high  places  of  political  life,  more  often  in  the  recesses  of  pri- 
vate social  life  where  the  mis.sionaries  could  not  follow  it. 

There  have  indeed  been  many  things  to  encourage.  Nowhere 
has  the  indirect  fruitage  of  missionary  work  been  greater  as  both 
the  goveiTiment  and  the  leading  men  of  Siam  are  glad  to  recog- 
nize. “It  was  your  mi.ssionaries,”  said  the  Minister  of  Foreign 
Affairs,  “who  first  introduced  the  printing  of  the  Siamese  lan- 
guage.” They  built  the  first  hosj»ital  and  opened  the  first  school. 
A missionary',  at  the  reque.st  of  the  Siamese  government,  was 
our  first  American  diplomatic  representative,  and  another  at  the 

27 


same  r('(inest,  l)ef>aii  tlie  fjovernment  scliof)ls.  Missionaries  began 
and  still  lead  in  the  education  of  girls  and  they  built  and  con- 
duct what  is  still  the  only  leper  asylum  in  the  land.  Some  years 
ago  at  a bamiuet  given  in  honor  of  Prince  Damrong,  the  leading 
statesman  of  Siam,  the  Prince  said  to  the  American  Minister  in 
a voice  to  be  heard  by  all  j)resent.  “Mr.  King,  I want  to  say  to 
you  that  we  have  great  resj)ect  for  your  American  mis.sionaries 
in  our  country  and  a])preciate  very  highly  the  work  that  they 
are  doing  for  our  ]»eoj)le.  1 want  this  to  la*  understood  by  eveiw 
one  and  if  you  are  in  a i)Osition  to  let  it  be  known  to  your  coun- 
trymen, 1 wish  you  would  say  this  for  me.  The  work  of  your 
people  is  e.xcellent.” 

It  is  this  woik  which  we  have  just  been  visiting.  We  have 
seen  it  in  the  Pangkok  (’hristian  College  and  the  Wang  Lang 
School  for  (liils.  the  best  educational  institutifuis  for  character 
buihling  in  Hangkok.  "We  have  seen  it  in  the  self-supporting 
mission  |»iess  which  continues  the  tradition  of  the  work  whicli 
Dr.  Bradley  did  in  ojtening  a juinted  liteiature  to  Siam.  We 
have  seen  it  in  the  Boon  Itt  Memorial  Institute  built  to  com- 
memorate the  life  of  a Siamese  whom  many  in  America  knew 
and  loved  and  whose  intluence  still  lives. in  this  institution,  which 
is  a Young  Men’s  Christian  Association  within  the  church,  work- 
ing for  the  young  men  in  business  and  government  service.  We 
saw  it  crowded  to  the  doors  and  beyond  the  do(»rs  one  night  with 
one  of  the  best  audiences  of  men  1 have  ever  seen  in  the  far  Ka.st. 
But  most  of  all  we  have  studie<l  the  forces  of  Chri.stianity  at 
work  in  the  effort  to  jueach  the  gosjiel  diiectly  to  the  multitudes 
of  the  city.  On  one  Sunday  we  went  to  nine  ditlerent  meetings 
and  knew  that  on  the  other  .side  of  the  river  there  were  two  more, 
in  all  of  which  to  the  ])eople  who  sat  or  who  stood  for  a little 
Avhile  and  then  ]>assed  by,  the  Chinese  and  Siamese  i)reachers 
and  the  missionaries,  and  foremost  among  them  with  his  match- 
le.ss  command  of  the  language.  Dr.  George  B.  McFarland,  Dean 
of  the  Boyal  ^ledical  School,,  who  though  not  a missionary  is 
one  of  the  best  of  mis.sionaries,  were  ])reaching  that  go.s]>el  on 
which,  though  now  rejected,  all  of  Siam's  hope  dei*ends.  It  is  a 
great  deal  that  is  being  done  but  it  ought  to  be  multiplie<l  ten 
fold  ami  men  and  women  to  give  themselves  exclusively  to  the 
evangelistic  work  must  Ik*  sent  out  and  all  the  latent  forces  of 
the  Siamese^  Church  must  be  roused  to  deal  with  this  great  task 
which  calls  as  loudly  as  any  task  on  earth  for  the  unremitting 
prayer  of  the  Church  at  home.  But  it  is  a i»roblem  that  will  uot 
be  solved  until  at  home  and  in  Siam  we  leani  the  lesson  of  the 
words  which  Kru  Pluang  spoke  in  one  of  our  last  conferences 
on  the  evangelization  of  the  city.  “What  you  have  said,”  said  he 
with  deej)  feeling,  “is  true  and  it  can  be  done,  if  every  Siamese 
Christian  will  give  everything  to  Christ.  I don't  see  auy  other 
ditticulty  but  that.”  Can  that  difficulty  uot  be  removed'? 

R.  E.  S. 


28 


2.  THE  PRESENT  POLITICAL  ENVIRONMENT  OF 
MISSIONS  IN  SIAM 


S.  S.  “C.  Lopez  y Lo]>ez,” 
July  24.  1915. 

Tlie  forms  and  tlie  sjtirit  of  Siamese  <>overnment  and  the 
conditions  and  tendencies  of  national  tlion«lit  and  feelino;  in 
Siam  are  nnderfjoing  .significant  changes.  In  one  sense  these 
are  of  no  concern  to  tlie  missionary  enterprise.  Its  dnO'  is  inde- 
pendent of  outward  circumstances  and  its  ta.sk  is  pursued  with- 
out regard  to  the  influence  of  surrounding  political  conditions. 
In  another  sense,  however,  its  political  environment  is  of  supreme 
interest  to  missions.  In  a land  like  Siam  this  environment  de- 
termines the  attitude  of  mind  of  the  whole  jieojile  toward  Chris- 
tianity. The  jii-esent  movmnents,  moreover,  liave  their  origin  in 
influences  which  ('liristian  missions  initialed  and  havi*  received 
their  chief  recent  imjmlse  from  the  jiersonal  contact  of  the  King 
with  western  rhiistemlom  and  his  elforl  to  sided  some  of  its 
social  and  religious  pnicijiles  and  ajijdy  them  in  a vital  way  to 
his  own  jieople. 

llis  Majesty  Sumdech  Phra  Paramendra  ,Maha  \’a jiravndli,  was 
horn  dan.  1,  ISSl.  llei-  !Majestv,  the  (^neen  .Mothei-,  was  17  years 
old  when  her  son  was  horn.  The  Crown  Pidnce  was  educated  in 
O.xford  and  traveled  widely  in  Enro])e  and  America  before  he 
succeeiled  to  the  throne  on  Oct.  22,  1910.  Hajipily  he  has  not 
had  to  deal  with  such  hostile  depradations  on  the  jiait  of  his 
jmwerfnl  neighbors  as  cost  the  late  King  no  small  ]»art  of  his 
kingdom.  Nhijiravmlh  has  indeed  had  his  jiroblems  of  foreign 
di])lomacy  to  deal  with,  but  the  King’s  chief  problem  has  lain 
within  his  own  nation  in  the  rimovalion  and  imjirovement  of 
government,  in  the  creation  of  a national  consciousness  and  the 
s])irit  of  jmlitical  and  economic  self-di^jiendence,  in  the  jmrifica- 
tion  of  morals  and  especially  of  the  family  life,  in  welding  his 
nation  into  an  eflicient  unity  and  imparting  to  it  a will  of  con- 
fidence and  progress.  There  are  many  foridgners  living  in  Siam 
who  have  no  ajipreciation  of  the  task  which  the  King  has  si*t  for 
him.self  and  who  do  not  appii*ciate  the  slrenglli  of  pui-pose  and 
the  constructive  skill  with  which  the  King  is'  working.  And 
there  are  of  course  many  who  view  all  such  efforts  on  the  jiart 
of  an  oriental  slate  with  disfavor  if  not  with  deiision  and  who 
in  their  hearts  hoiie  for  their  failure.  The  believer  in  foreign 
missions,  however,  is  a believer  in  man  and  in  nationality.  The 
goal  which  foreign  missions  seek  is  the  establishment  in  each 
nation  of  a free,  antononions  ainl  living  church  resting  ujkui  and 
giving  insjdration  to  the  sense  of  distinctive  national  character 
and  tiuty.  In  nothing  ought  missions  mori*  to  rejoice  than  in 

20 


same  TT(|n(*st,  bejiaii  tlie  };()V(M‘imieiit  scliools.  Missionaries  bej?an 
and  still  lead  in  the  edncalion  of  f’iils  and  they  built  and  con- 
duct what  is  still  the  only  lej>er  asylum  in  the  land.  Some  years 
a}>o  at  a baminet  given  in  honor  of  Prince  Damrong,  the  leading 
statesman  f)f  Siam,  the  Prince  said  to  the  American  Minister  in 
a voice  to  be  heard  by  all  j)re.sent.  “Mr.  King,  I want  to  say  to 
you  that  we  have  great  respect  for  your  American  mi.s.sionaries 
in  our  cotintry  and  a|)]treciate  very  highly  the  work  that  they 
are  doing  for  our  ])eoj)le.  1 want  this  to  be  understood  by  eveiw 
one  and  if  you  are  in  a j)Osition  to  let  it  be  known  to  your  coun- 
trymen, 1 wish  you  would  say  this  for  me.  The  work  of  your 
jteojde  is  e.vcellent.” 

It  is  this  woik  which  w(*  have  just  been  visiting.  We  have 
seen  it  in  the  Pangkcdc  ('hiistian  (’ollege  and  the  Wang  Lang 
School  foi-  dills,  the  best  educational  institutions  for  character 
building  in  Bangkok.  W(*  have  seen  it  in  the  self-sui»]torting 
mission  ]»iess  which  continues  the  ti-adition  of  the  work  wliicli 
Dr.  Bradley  did  iu  opening  a printed  liteiatnre  to  Siam.  We 
have  seen  it  in  the  Boon  Itt  .Memorial  Institute  built  to  com- 
memorat(‘  the  life  of  a Siame'<e  whom  many  in  America  knew 
and  loved  and  whose  intlnence  still  lives. in  this  institution,  which 
is  a Vonng  Men’s  (’hristian  Association  within  the  church,  work- 
ing for  the  young  men  in  business  and  government  service.  We 
saw  it  crowded  to  the  doois  and  beyond  the  doors  one  night  with 
one  of  th(‘i)est  audiences  of  men  I have  ever  seen  in  the  far  Ka.st. 
But  most  of  all  we  hav(>  studied  the  forces  of  ('hristianity  at 
work  in  the  elfort  to  jireach  the  gosjiel  direc  tly  to  the  multitudes 
of  the  city.  On  one  Sunday  we  went  to  nine  ditlercmt  mec^tings 
and  knew  that  on  the  other  side  of  the  river  theie  were  two  more, 
in  all  of  which  to  the  jieople  who  .sat  or  who  stood  for  a little 
while  and  then  ])as.sed  by,  the  ('hinc^se  and  Siame.se  jinmchers 
and  the  mission  aiders,  and  forcmiost  among  them  with  his  match- 
less command  of  the  language.  Dr.  (JcMirge  B.  McFarland,  Dean 
of  the  Boyal  Medical  Schoed,.  who  though  not  a missionary  is 
one  of  the  best  of  missionaries,  wei-e  jirc^aching  that  go.sjiel  on 
which,  though  now  r(\jectc‘d,  all  of  Siam's  hojie  de])ends.  It  is  a 
grc‘at  dcml  that  is  being  done  but  it  ought  to  be  multiplied  ten 
fold  and  men  and  women  to  give  themselves  exclusively  to  the 
evangelistic  work  must  be  sent  out  and  all  the  latent  forces  of 
the  Sianu'se  ('hurch  must  be  roused  to  deal  with  this  great  task 
which  calls  as  loudly  as  any  task  on  earth  for  the  unremitting 
prayer  of  the  ('hurch  at  home.  But  it  is  a problem  that  will  not 
be  solved  until  at  home  and  in  Siam  we  learn  the  lesson  of  the 
words  which  Kru  Pluang  spoke  in  one  of  onr  last  conferences 
on  the  evangelization  of  the  city.  “What  yon  have  said,”  said  he 
with  deej)  feeling,  “is  true  and  it  can  be  done,  if  every  Siamese 
Christian  will  give  everything  to  Christ.  I don't  see  any  other 
dilticnlty  but  that.”  Can  that  diflicnlty  not  be  removed? 

B.  E.  S. 


28 


2.  THE  PRESENT  POLITICAL  ENVIRONMENT  OF 
MISSIONS  IN  SIAM 


S.  S.  “C.  Lopez  y Lopez,” 
.Inly  2L  1915. 

The  forms  and  the  sj)irit  of  Siamese  goyernment  and  the 
conditions  and  tendencies  of  national  tlionght  and  feeling  in 
Siam  are  undergoing  significant  changes.  In  one  sense  these 
are  of  no  concern  to  the  missionary  enterprise.  Its  duty  is  inde- 
j)endent  of  ont\yard  circnmstances  and  its  task  is  ])nrsned  Ayith- 
ont  regard  to  the  influence  of  surrounding  j)olitical  conditions. 
In  another  sense,  howeyer,  its  political  environment  is  of  supreme 
interest  to  missions.  In  a land  like  Siam  this  enyironment  de- 
termines tlie  attitude  of  mind  of  tlie  Achole  peo])le  toward  Chri.s- 
tianity.  The  ]»irseiit  movements,  moreovei',  have  their  oi-igin  in 
inflnences  whicli  ('hi-istiau  missions  initialed  and  Iiav(>  received 
llieir  chief  r(*cent  ini])nlse  from  the  pei-sonal  contact  «d'  the  King 
with  western  ( 'liristendom  and  his  etfoi-t  to  s(dect  some  of  its 
sociiil  and  religions  ])rnci])les  and  a]>ply  them  in  a vital  wav  to 
his  own  i»eo])le. 

His  Majesty  Somdecli  Phra  Paramendra  Malm  \'ajiravudh,  was 
hoin  .Ian.  1,  ISSl.  llm-  Majestv,  the  (^neen  Mother,  was  17  years 
old  when  her  son  was  horn.  The  Crown  Pi-ince  was  educated  iu 
O.xford  and  travele<l  widely  in  Euro]»e  and  America  before  he 
succeeded  to  the  throne  on  Oct.  2:>,  1910.  IIa])])ily  he  has  not 
had  to  deal  with  sncIi  hostile  deju-adations  on  the  ])art  of  his 
powerful  neighbors  as  cost  the  late  King  no  small  j)art  of  his 
kingdom.  \’ajiravndh  has  indeed  had  his  problems  of  foreign 
dil)lomacy  to  deal  with,  hut  the  King’s  chief  ]»rohlem  has  lain 
within  his  own  nation  in  the  renovation  ami  improyement  of 
government,  in  the  creation  of  a national  consciousness  and  the 
spirit  of  jtolitic-al  and  economic  self-de|)endence,  in  the  ])urifica- 
tion  of  morals  and  esjiecially  of  the  family  life,  in  welding  his 
nation  into  an  etlicient  unity  and  imjiarting  to  it  a will  (d'  con- 
tidence  and  ])rogress.  There  ai(‘  many  fonugners  living  in  Siam 
who  have  no  appreci:Lion  of  the  task  which  tin*  King  has  set  for 
him.s<‘lf  and  who  do  not  appreciate  tin*  stiamglh  of  purpose  and 
the  constructive*  skill  with  which  the  King  is'  working.  And 
there  are*  of  e-oni-se  many  whee  view  all  sueh  elforts  on  the  j)art 
of  an  oriental  state  with  disfave)r  if  not  with  derision  and  who 
in  their  hearts  hope  for  their  failure.  The  be*lit*ver  in  foreign 
mis.sions,  however,  is  a believer  in  man  and  in  natieuiality.  The 
ge>al  which  foreign  missions  se*e*k  is  the  estahlishmemt  in  each 
nation  of  a fre*e*.  anionomons  and  living  ediurch  re*sting  ujeon  and 
giving  insjdration  to  the  sen.se*  of  distinctive*  national  character 
and  elnty.  In  nothing  ought  missions  me»re*  to  rejoie'e  tlmn  in 

29 


such  a national  movement  as  was  worked  out  in  the  nineteenth 
century  in  Japan,  and  as  the  King,  with  conscientious  and  ear- 
nest pui^pose  and  such  wisdom  as  has  been  given  him,  is  seeking 
to  inaugurate  in  Siam.  He  has  a task  of  enormous  difficulty. 
Tt  is  too  niucli  to  expect  that  he  will  not  make  mistakes,  but  he 
should  have  all  tlie  sympathy  and  support  that  we  can  give  him. 
If  he  sees  that  those  Avho  are  carrying  on  Christian  missions 
in  his  kingdom  understand  liis  program  and  are  heartily  de- 
sirous of  doing  all  tliey  can  to  forward  it,  he  will  be  more  likely 
to  be  ready  to  consider  any  suggestions  they  may  have  to  make 
with  regard  to  tlie  proce.sses  which  he  is  using. 

Many  of  the  tendencies  Avhich  the  King  is  carrying  forward 
were  begun  during  the  reign  of  his  father,  Chulalongkorn,  the 
most  enlightened  and  progressive  sovereign  Siam  has  known 
prior  to  his  Majesty,  the  pre.sent  King.  King  Chulalongkorn, 
supported  by  his  brother,  Prince  Damrong.  tlie  ablest  statesman 
of  Siam,  had  for  many  years  striven  to  improve  the  administra- 
tion of  the  country.  The  kingdom  was  divided  into  eighteen 
circles  or  monthons,  sub-divided  into  provinces  or  muangs,  these 
again  being  sub-divided  into  districts  or  amphurs,  and  the.se 
into  villages  or  tambons,  and  these  into  hamlets  or  mu  bans.  At 
the  head  of  every  hamlet  of  ten  or  twenty  families  was  placed 
an  elder,  at  the  head  of  the  village,  a head  man,  at  the  head  of 
each  amphur,  an  official  responsible  to  the  governor  who  was 
over  each  province,  who  in  tuni  was  responsible  to  the  Lord 
Lieutenant  of  the  monthon.  The  elders  elected  the  head  man 
of  the  village,  but  for  the  rest  the  whole  system  was  appointive 
from  the  top  down,  and  the  entire  administration  of  the  coun- 
try" was  gatliered  up  in  a centralized  order.  The  spirit  of  Siam 
and  of  the  Siamese  people  is  vei*y  democratic,  but  politically, 
perhaps  nowhere  else  on  earth,  not  even  in  Russia  or  Turkey, 
does  their  exist  .such  a pure  absolutism  as  Siam.  There  is  no 
constitution  nor  any  vestige  of  popular  or  representative  gov- 
ernment. A legislative  council,  decreed  in  1S9.5,  has  not  met  for 
years,  and  there  is  no  regular  cabinet  meeting  of  the  minis- 
ters. It  is  a wonderful  thing  that  under  such  a system  there 
should  exist  so  much  democratic  spirit.  This  is  due  in  part, 
doubtless,  to  an  inherited  tradition  of  freedom,  but  in  part  also 
to  the  lack  of  an  hereditaiw  nobility.  Titles  in  Siam  have  been 
not  inherited  but  official,  and  the  doors  of  preferment  were  open 
to  any  able  man.  The  King’s  present  problem  is  to  fill  the  frame- 
work of  political  admini.stration  which  seems  well  adapted  to 
his  country,  with  the  spirit  of  honest  and  efficient  sendee,  to  de- 
velop initiative  and  independence  and  responsibility,  if  he  can 
do  so,  under  a principle  of  absolutism,  to  make  free  men  in  a sys- 
tem of  government  which  knows  nothing  of  popular  rights  or 
representative  responsibility  and  which,  while  in  fact  quite  free 
and  benevolent,  is  yet,  in  theory  and  political  right,  monarchical 
with  no  restraint  except  the  monarch’s  will.  The  natural  result 
of  such  a system  is  that  the  one  thing  for  which  men  live  is  oL 

30 


ficial  service,  and  that  the  state  sucks  up  the  energies  which, 
under  free  governments,  spread  out  with  a range  and  creative 
liberty  of  action  impossible  to  the  state,  Every  educated  man  in 
Siam  wants  to  become  a government  servant.  With  the  excep- 
tion of  the  simple  traditional  forms  of  agriculture,  accordingly, 
the  really  active  life  of  the  land,  trade  and  industrial  develop- 
ment, and  the  wealth-producing  activities  are  in  the  hands  of 
foreigners,  Chinese  and  Europeans;  and  the  Siamese  who  ought 
to  be  developing  the  resources  and  increasing  the  wealth  of  their 
nation,  surrender  themselves  instead  to  the  torpor  and  mildew 
of  the  bureaucratic  routine.  The  King  thinks  the  country  is  not 
ripe  for  anj"  form  of  representative  government  and  he  may  be 
right.  The  plot  against  his  life  at  the  time  of  the  Chinese  revo- 
lution and  the  history  of  the  Chinese  Kepublic  have  made  him 
the  more  sure  that  that  is  not  the  right  road  for  Siam.  He  is 
eager  to  do  the  best  he  can  for  his  country  and  he  thinks  that 
the  present  form  of  government  is  the  one  best  suited  to  its 
genius  and  present  development.  He  is  sparing  no  effort  to  make 
the  government  just  and  helpful,  but  his  problem  is,  under  his 
system,  to  produce  free  and  enterprising  men  and  to  keep  official 
service  from  being  the  one  ambition  of  life.  And  deeper  yet  is 
the  question,  can  the  human  mind  be  set  free  in  Siam  and  eman- 
cipated from  its  bondage  to  government  and  the  King’s  mind? 
The  mind  of  a people  may  be  content  to  go  to  sleep  under  the 
rule  of  a good  king,  but  the  good  king  cannot  be  content  to  have 
it  .so. 

Not  only  is  the  present  King  carrying  forward  earnestly  the 
effort  which  his  father  began,  to  improve  the  government,  he  is 
also  seeking,  as  his  fatlier  sought,  to  unify  the  countiw.  It  has 
never  been  one.  IMany  different  languages  are  .spoken  in  it  and 
even  the  Siamese  language  is  not  tlie  same  throughout  the  coun- 
try'. The  assimilative  forces  wliicli  liave  been  at  work  have  been 
feeble.  A colony  of  Lao  people  settled  in  the  neighborhood  of 
Petchaburi  centuries  ago,  and  surrounded  by  Siamese,  still  wear 
their  own  dress,  speak  their  own  language,  and  presene  their 
own  customs.  Tlie  Lao  states  in  the  north,  though  a part  of 
Siam,  preserved  their  complete  independence,  barring  an  annual 
payment  of  tribute,  until  twenty  or  thirty  years  ago.  Until  1891 
there  were  no  railways  in  the  counfiw  and  there  were  few  roads, 
and  the  only  means  of  communication  were  the  streams  and  rude 
trails  for  elephants  and  pack  trains.  The  Siamese  proper  con- 
stituted a minority  of  the  population.  Most  of  the  subjects 
of  the  King  were  Chinese.  Lao,  Malays,  Cambodians,  and  various 
non-Siamese  races.  For  the  last  twenty  years  the  process  of  uni- 
fication has  been  going  on.  With  a great  deal  of  political  tact 
the  government  has  absorbed  the  semi-independent  Lao  kingdoms. 
The  skill  and  patience  of  the  government’s  policy  are  worthy  of 
the  greatest  praise.  These  kingdoms  have  been  brought  com- 
pletely under  Siame.se  administration  with  far  less  friction  than 
America  has  experienced  in  the  Philippines,  or  Japan  in  Korea, 

31 


or  Great  Britain  in  Sotitli  Africa.  Many  of  the  nncongenial 
Cambodian  and  Malay  elements  have  been  transferre<l  to  France 
and  (treat  Britain.  Their  transfer  has  reduced  Siamese  terri- 
tory, bnt  it  has  f^reatly  simplified  the  problem  of  Siarne.se  unifi- 
cation. Bailroads  have  1)h*ii  built  north  and  .south  which  will 
soon  connect  ('hieii”,  Mai  and  Tran”  with  the  cajiital.  A unifoi'm 
.system  of  courts,  taxation,  ])iis(»n  administration,  a common 
currency,  a .system  of  education,  an  enlai-^injj  netwoi-k  of  i-oads, 
newspaper's,  imjrr'oviii”  jrost  office  and  telef^r'ajrh  facilities,  and 
the  steady  advancement  in  the  efficiency  of  jiolitical  adrnirristra- 
tion,  toj»ether  with  the  iiifluerrce  of  the  per-sorrality  of  the  Kin<i 
and  his  visits  to  different  jrar-ts  of  the  Kirr^dorn,  ar-e  wor-kinjr 
wonders  in  the  irni fication  of  the  coniitr-y  arrd  the  developrrrent 
of  a national  consciousness. 

It  is  in  this  matter-  of  his  discernmeni  (d'  Siam's  nee<l  of  a 
.sense  of  nationality  aitd  of  the  measiir-es  which  he  is  takirrj;  to 
create  this  serrso,  fliat  the  Kiii”'s  cortr-.se  of  actiorr  is  specially 
inter-estiii”.  He  is  nsiii”  with  j!;reat  skill  arrd  srtccess  the  agencies 
which  ar-e  at  his  command. 

The  fir'sf  of  these  is  jxtpnlar  education.  Fr-onr  time  intrnertrorial 
the  schools  in  Siam  have  been  in  the  hairds  of  the  Brrddhist 
priests  and  have  been  conducted  in  the  wats  or  temple  enclos- 
rrr-es.  These  schools  have  not  been  withorrt  their  efficiency,  brrt 
•they  did  rrot  constitute  a natiorral  .system.  They  wer-e  condrrcted 
in  the  nanre  and  interest  of  Brrddhism  and  not  in  the  narrre  and 
inter-est  of  the  statr*.  They  ”ave  nothin”  like  a rrtoder-rt  effective 
edircation,  and  while  thev  diffused  a <;eneral  irrtellifjerrce,  they 
left  an  ajrjrallin”  illiter-acy.  AVhile  they  tau<rht  the  tnerr  very 
gener-ally  to  r-ead  they  did  not  teach  the  women,  so  that  due 
lar'”;ely  to  this  fact,  in  such  jrartial  census  statistics  as  were 

available  r-eturrred  ortly  fMlb,!).-)!  literates  and  (;,:{:1S,20.")  illiterates. 
Irt  explainirr”-  the  failure  of  censits  errurrreratiorrs.  a jrovernrnent 
rrrenror-andirrrr  of  1!)0.”)  stated  that  the  “work  had  failed  through 
a most  sur-prisirr”'  cause,  which  the  atterni»t  to  take  a census 
brought  irrto  jrrominence  for  the  fir-st  time,  namely  that  while 
the  head  rtrerr  and  village  elders  and  the  majority  of  the  ])eople 
can  r-ead,  very  few  are  able  to  write  arrd  still  fewer  able  to  under- 
stand how  to  till  irj)  a statistical  for-rn.”  The  govenrrrreut  fr*eshly 
energized  by  the  irr-esent  King  has  develojred  a cajrable  depart- 
rrrerrt  of  edrrcation,  taken  over  thr-orrghout  the  whole  corrntry  the 
existing  jurblic  schools,  using  still  for-  the  most  jrart  the  Wat 
pr-o])erty,  which  is  irr  a serrse  pirblic  ]»r-o)>er-ty, — although  the 
gover-nrnent  disavows  any  r-esponsibility  for-  Wat  adrnirristr-ation, 
— established  a very  sensible  luograrrr  of  school  studies  arrd  or- 
ganization and  shaped  the  whole  system  with  a view  to  develop- 
ing the  sense  of  national  life  and  meeting  its  needs.  Modern 
education,  hoAvever,  jrroduces  an  international  rather  than  a na- 
tional mind.  It  deals  of  nece.ssity  with  material  that  is  uni- 
versally true,  and  unless  it  is  twisted  away  from  moral  reality 
it  cannot  be  irsed  in  the  interest  of  a nationalistic  spirit  which, 

32 


for  the  time  being,  feels  justified  in  a somewhat  exclusivistic 
emphasis. 

A second  agency  which  the  King  is  using  is  the  army  and  a 
stiffened  extension  of  military  conscription.  The  law  of  con- 
scription was  first  put  in  force  in  the  province  of  Bangkok  in 
1910.  It  has  since  been  extended  both  in  personal  and  in  geo- 
graphical incidence,  and  will  soon  apply  to  all  young  men  twenty 
years  of  age  in  all  parts  of  the  countrA%  with  exemptions  by  lot 
if  the  yield  is  greater  than  the  army’s  requirements,  and  with 
the  excuse  of  large  groups  such  as  the  priesthood,  civil  officials, 
students,  Chinese,  the  uncivilized  tribes,  etc.  At  the  present 
time  there  are  three  army  corps  divided  into  ten  divisions  and 
each  division  into  two  regiments  of  infantry,  one  of  cavalry,  one 
of  artillery',  one  company  of  engineers,  one  of  transport,  one  of 
machine  guns,  and  one  of  ambulance.  At  present  the  army  con- 
■sists  of  approximately  i>0,000  men.  It  is  developing  into  an  ex- 
cellent army,  adapted  to  Siamese  conditions,  but  what  is  more 
significant  it  is  providing  a powerful  school  for  personal  charac- 
ter and  national  consciousness.  Its  discipline  is  giving  erect 
alertnes.s,  decision  of  character,  promptness  of  action,  and  habits 
of  effort  to  the  young  men  of  Siam  who  have  been  notably  de- 
ficient in  just  these  qualities.  The  barracks  have  their  own 
schools  also,  which  include  some  industrial  and  technical  train- 
ing. Some  foreign  critics  lament  the  growth  of  militarism,  but 
unless  ])resent  treaties  are  despised  it  is  difficult  to  see  whom 
Siam  might  have  to  fight.  The  chief  significance  of  the  army  is 
found  in  its  value  as  nn  eclucational  force  working  in  behalf  of 
national  consciousness  and  character.  It  is  supplemented  in  this 
work  bv  the  national  gendarmerie,  which  is  a general  constabu- 
lary, policing  the  rural  districts,  and  by  the  metropolitan  police 
force,  which  is  simply  a separate  gendarmerie  for  the  capital. 
No  one  can  travel  through  the  countrv  and  observe  thoughtfully 
the  influence  which  these  organizations  are  exerting  without 
being  convinced  of  their  value  as  parts  of  his  Majesty’s  care- 
fully cho.sen  policy  of  political  education. 

The  King  has  himself  originated  a third  agency  which  he  calls 
the  Wild  Tigers.  If  is  a sort  of  adult  Boy  Seout  movement, 
quite  picturesque  and  in  some  aspects  even  entertaining,  but  it 
is  a thoroughly  serious  movement  with  pronounced  political  re- 
sults. It  was  begun  in  1911  and  the  King  has  himself  explained 
that  his  j)urpose  of  organization  was  to  promote  national  feeling, 
to  develop  a spirit  of  unity  in  the  ranks  of  government  officials, 
breaking  down  the  jealous  separateness  between  the  different 
Ministries  and  Departments,  to  strengthen  the  .sense  of  duty  and 
political  loyalty,  to  restore  the  ancient  militant  energies  of  the 
people,  and  to  exalt  ideals  of  integrity  and  discipline  and  activ- 
ity and  chivalry.  The  King  has  thrown  into  the  movement  all 
his  personal  influence  and  royal  patronage.  It  is  understood 
that  enthusiasm  for  it  is  an  evidence  of  special  loyalty  to  the 
person  and  purposes  of  the  King.  Its  uniforms,  its  drills  and 

83 

2 — Report  of  Deputation. 


other  functions,  its  spirit  ami  the  distinctly  nationalistic  tone 
and  color  wliich  tlie  King  has  skillfully  given  to  it.  have  made 
the  Wild  Tiger  Corj)s  an  excee<lingly  elfective  agency  in  the  de- 
velopment of  nationalism  and  of  personal  loyalty  to  the  King. 
The  mov'enient  has  its  oihvions  dangers.  Divisive  influences  may 
emerge  from  it,  hut  thus  far  the  King  has  held  all  these  in  check 
and  the  skill  which  he  has  shown  justifies  the  hope  that  he  can 
make  the  movement  what  he  has  planned,  namely,  an  expression 
and  development  of  what  can  not  be  better  described  than  a 
Siamese  Bushido. 

The. fourth  agency  of  which  the  King  is  making  use  with  un- 
hesitating boldness  is  the  national  religion.  In  this  the  King 
has  been  far  from  content  to  follow  simply  in  the  footsteps  of  his 
father,  but  is  acting  with  a positive  energ}'  that  is  quite  new. 
Buddhism  has  always  betm  the  established  religion  of  Siam. 
For  years  the  chief  priest  has  been  a member  of  the  royal  family, 
and  the  political  administration  has  been  interwoven  with  Budd- 
hist ceremonies  at  every  turn,  but  Chnlalongkorn  left  to  the 
church  the  aggressive  promulgation  of  Bnddhi‘sm.  He  jtartly 
adopted  the  fTregorJan  calendar,  and  his  governnrent,  while 
avowedly  Buddhist,  inclined  increasingly  in  its  methods  of  ad- 
ministration to  our  Western  secular  theory.  The  attitude  of 
his  Majesty,  the  present  King,  is  different.  He  has  decree<i  the 
siibstitntion  of  the  Buddhist  era  for  the  Gregorian  so  that  the 
present  year  in  Siam  is  officially  2,458  B.  E.  (Buddhist  Era). 
In  describing  the  moral  instruction  which  is  to  be  the  ba^is  of 
all  teaching  in  the  primary  schools  and  .which  is  to  train  the 
scholar  “to  be  honest  and  truthful  in  all  ways,  to  be  able  to 
appreciate  his  duty  and  responsibility’  to  others,  to  be  brave,  but 
re.spectfnl  and  considerate,  to  under.stand  his  obligations  to  his 
parents,  to  his  teachers,  and  to  those  in  authority,  to  be  patri- 
otic, and  to  understand  his  duties  to  the  state,  not  to  be  waste- 
ful and  extravagant,  to  be  moderate,  to  be  industrious,  careful 
and  diligent,  that  the  time  spent  in  school  be  not  wasted.”  the 
Ministry  of  Public  Instruction  specifies  that  “the  subjects  should 
be  taught  by  instilling  into  the  scholar  the  precepts  of  the  Budd- 
hist faith.”  In  the  public  schools,  in  the  police  station.s,  in  the 
army  barracks,  even  by  the  keepers  in  ]»nblic  institutions  like 
the  insane  asylum,  there  are  regular  Buddhist  chants  and  pray- 
ers. The  vow  taken  by  the  AVild  Tigers  contains  a declaration 
of  faith  ill  Buddhism.  In  many  powei-ful  and  pervasive  insti- 
tutional ways  the  King  is  pressing  the  Buddhist  religion  into 
the  service  of  nationalism.  And  he  is  doing  this  not  in  imper- 
sonal institutional  ways  alone,  but  by  earnest  and  emphatic 
direct  teaching.  Both  in  speeches  and  in  published  articles  he 
appeals  to  the  people  to  realize  that  Buddhism  is  the  national 
and  ancestral  religion,  th'at  the  Siamese  people  should  adhere  to 
it  steadfastly  and  practice  it  faithfully.  In  a speech  to  the  AVild 
Tigers  on  April  25.  1014,  he  said,  “In  each  group  or  nation  of 
men  there  must  be  a governor  to  take  care  of  the  people,  and 

34  . 


there  must  be  some  one  to  teach  tiiem  to  do  good,  like  a Jesus, 
a Buddha  or  a Moliammed.  The  work  of  these  men  we  call  re- 
ligious. Religious  are  sign  ]>osts  to  tell  the  i)eo])le  how  to  walk 
in  the  good  way.  All  the  religious  contemplate  the  same  effects. 
People  must  believe  in  religion.  The  Siamese  people  born  in  the 
Buddha  religion  must  believe  in  it.  But  some  people  at  the 
])reseut  time  think  that  they  are  free,  that  they  may  formulate 
their  own  religious  ideas,  the  idea  for  example  that  it  is  not 
right  to  steal  if  you  get  caught,  but  that  it  is  all  right  if  you  ai*e 
not  caught.  People  who  have  thoughts  like  these  are  men  with- 
out religion  and  therefore  without  goodness.  A man  cannot 
comstruct  a religion  for  himself.  Religion  is  a thing  that  has 
taken  many  thousands  of  years  to  woi'k  out.  The  man  who 
thinks  he  can  construct  a religion  for  himself  is  a fanatic.  I 
have  examined  all  the  religions  myself  and  T believe  the  Buddha 
religion  to  be  the  best.  Therefore  T believe  in  the  Buddha  re- 
ligion. T know  about  the  Christian  religion  better  than  some 
foreigners  do  becau.se  T was  educated  in  Europe  where  T studied 
Christianity  and  passed  an  examination  and  got  first  honors  in 
it.  Next  Saturday  f will  explain  about  the  Christian  religion.” 
The  following  Saturday  lu‘  did  ex])laiu,  giving  a uatui-alistic  but 
not  uusyin]»athet ic  account  of  Cliristiauity.  Again  and  again 
the  King  has  reverted  to  this  subject,  each  time  to  urge  uj)on  the 
peo])le  the  preservation  of  the  national  religion,  evidently  believ- 
ing as  many  statesmen  have  believed,  aiuoiig  them  some  who  had 
no  faith  in  the  ndigion  which  they  Avere  using,  that  in  his  just 
efforts  to  i>reserve  and  strengthen  Siamese  nationality,  he  was 
doing  Avisely  in  thus  utilizing  the  Buddhist  tradition.  Is  he 
doing  Avisely  in  this?  We  shall  do  Avell  to  impure  Avhat  the 
probable  effect  of  this  course  of  action  Avill  be,  first  upon  the 
intellectual  honesty  of  tin*  nation  and  the  right  of  religious  lib- 
erty, and  .second  upon  Buddhism  itself  in  Siam. 

Before  taking  up  these  (piestious,  hoAvevei-,  Ave  need  to  do  jms- 
tice  in  our  thought  to  tin*  ai-gument  aaIucIi  can  be  made  in  su])- 
port  of  the  course  AA'hicli  the  King  is  juirsuiiig  and  also  to  the 
sincerity  of  his  j)nrpose  and  the  earnestness  of  his  ]»ersonal  in- 
fluence and  example. 

The  King  has  inheriled  a Acuy  dillicult  task.  Tin*  Siamese  or 
Thai  7)eopl(‘  w(‘r(M)uc(‘  a Avarlikc  ,nid  (uicrgetic  u.iliou  wlio  gloried 
in  the  name  of  tlie  “l’'‘rc(*  People.”  T1k\v  caiiu*  down  from  tin* 
north  full  of  the  vii-ih*  ipialities  Avhich  have  ahvays  character- 
ized the  peoj)le  who  liv(*d  in  Cliiiia  or  Avho  av(‘uI  out  from  it  as 
emigrants  to  other  lauds,  lint  decimating  Avar,  debilitating 
climate,  and  the  enervating  ease  of  tropical  life  and,  Avhat  the 
King  does  not  see,  the  inevitable  inertia  and  stupefaction  of 
Buddhism,  and  the  isolation  of  Siam  from  vital  contact  with  the 
living  forces  which  have  made  the  modern  Avoi  ld, — these  and  lesser 
influences  ate  out  the  vitality  of  the  original  racial  stock.  Hoav 
to  r«vitaliz<*  it,  to  i-ebuild  it  into  a nation,  shai’ing  in  the  life 
and  Avork  of  nualern  civilization,  to  uAvakeu  a sjdrit  (d'  national 

35 


self-confidence  and  racial  destiny,  to  preserve  his  nation  and  yet 
ref^enerate  it,  this  is  the  problem  which  the  late  King  began  to 
see  and  which  stands  out  in  shaiT}  outlines  before  King  Va- 
jiravudh.  Who  can  fail  to  sympathize  with  him  in  his  task? 
What  can  be  done  for  a man  until  the  jiride  of  personality  has 
been  wakened  in  him,  the  consciousness  that  he  too  can  be  and 
must  be  what  other  men  have  been?  What  hope  is  there  for  the 
man  until  there  has  been  born  in  him  a great  hope  and  snreness 
regarding  himself?  Just  so  and  even  more  with  nations.  Ap- 
parently the  young  King  of  Siam  realizes  the  work  he  has  to  do 
and  lias  gone  about  it  witli  a brave  heart.  And  he  has  had  but 
little  to  work  with.  His  ancient  nation  is  without  a histoin’.  It 
had  no  jirinting  until  the  missionaries  introduced  it  70  years 
ago.  Its  old  manuscrijit  records  were  destroyed  in  successive 
revolutions.  There  were  no  family  names  until  the  present  King 
introduced  them  two  years  ago.  In  a real  sense  Siam  has  no 
vertebrate  past,  and  what  can  a future  be  made  out  of  but  a 
past?  There  is  little  but  a mere  mist  of  a past  on  which  to 
build  a strong  Siamese  nation.  The  King  has  been  hampered 
also  by  limiting  foreign  treaties,  forbidding  import  duties  in 
excess  of  three  per  cent.,  introducing  confusing  extra-territorial 
jurisdictions  and  constraining  the  gover-nment  to  look  for  neces- 
sary revenues  to  the  economically  false  and  morally  suicidal 
course  of  legalizing  gambling  and  selling  opium  as  a govern- 
ment monopoly.  Out  of  a budget  of  70,000,000  ticals  the  gov- 
ernment secures  10,000,000  ticals  from  opium  and  7,000,000  ticals 
from  excise  and  licensed  gambling.  The  goverament  is  well 
aware  of  the  folly  of  such  procedure.  It  has  sought  to  restrict 
gambling  and  would  gladly  abolish  it.  It  is  striving  earnestly 
for  a tariff  autonomy  which  will  enable  it  to  cut  out  of  the 
national  life  these  evils  against  which  the  King  is  constantly 
preaching.  In  all  northern  Siam  also,  and  perhaps  in  the  south, 
the  physicians  declare  that  00  per  cent,  of  the  population  is  suf- 
fering from  hook  worm  with  its  inevitable  consequences  of  men- 
tal and  physical  deterioration  and  inefficiency.  With  such  prob- 
lems to  deal  with  it  is  not  sui*prising  that  the  King  turns  to 
every  agency  which  he  thinks  can  be  of  service  to  him,  nor  is  it  to 
be  wondered  at  that  he  makes  some  wrong  choices  and  even 
passes  by  some  of  the  forces,  which,  if  he  but  knew  it,  would 
accomjilish  more  for  him  than  any  of  those  on  which  he  relies. 

Of  all  the  agencies  which  the  King  is  using  perhaps  none  is 
more  jiowerful  than  the  steady  pressure  of  his  personal  example 
and  influence.  He  is  not  without  the  weaknesses  that  go  -wfith 
arbitrary  power,  and  is  sjieuding  himself  or  giving  away  to 
favorites  or  to  enterprises  in  Avhich  he  is  interested  much  money 
that  could  be  better  used.  But  he  must  be  credited  with  a serious 
purpose  in  such  expenditures,  and  even  in  such  outlays  he  can 
indicate  what  kind  of  man  it  is  that  he  approves  and  is  ready  to 
advance.  It  is  becoming  quite  clearly  understood  that  men 
Avhose  private  life  is  objectionable  stand  no  chance  of  his  favor. 

36 


I 


The  young  men  whom  he  is  pushing  forward  must  be  men  of  in- 
' dustry  and  patriotism  and  of  cdeau  lives.  The  King  is  an  ener- 
getic speechmakei’,  delivering  addresses  regularly  to  the  Wild 
! Tigers  and  to  the  Royal  Pages’  School,  and  he  does  not  hesitate 
to  ai^pear  in  print.  A long  series  of  articles  have  been  running 
in  the  “Siam  Observer,”  signed  “Asvabahu,”  and  these  are  gen- 
erally attributed  to  the  King.  I asked  the  editor  of  the  “Ob- 
server” how  much  he  was  at  liberty  to  say  with  regard  to  the 
authorship  of  the.se  articles,  and  his  reply  was  quite  Delphic. 
The  articles  have  been  re-printed  in  five  little  volumes,  all  but 
one  of  which  had  been  entirely  bought  out,  chiefly  by  officials. 
; The  volume  which  I was  able  to  get  was  entitled  “Clogs  On  Our 

' Wheels,”  and  if  it  was  not  written  by  the  King  it  at  any  rate 

;;  .sets  forth  what  every  one  understands  to  be  his  ideas.  The  clogs 

with  which  he  deals  are  the  moral  defects  of  Siamese  chai'acter 
* and  .social  life.  The  articles  strike  in  the  most  unequivocal  way  at 
,1  “unreasoning  imitation,”  “self-abasement,”  “exaggerated  venera- 
tion  for  letters,”  “clerkisin,”  “false  digiiity,”  “temporary  niar- 
, riages,”  “traffic  in  young  women,”  pettine.ss  and  instability  of 

c character,  and  close  with  a vigorous  attack  on  “the  cult  of  imi- 

j tation.”  One  could  scarcely  ask  for  more  wholesome  moral  coun- 

I sel  than  the  King  directl}’  or  indirectly  is  giving  to  the  nation. 

Ksj)ecially  noteworthy  is  his  attitude  toward  the  greatest  weak- 
) ness  of  Siam,  the  informality  and  insecurity  of  family  life.  Mar- 

riage ill  Siam  has  been  in  the  jiast  the  simjilest  sort  of  procedure. 
For  the  most  jiart  men  and  woman  siinjily  consorted  together 
without  ceremony  or  registration.  There  was  no  statute  or  senti- 
ment against  iiolyganiy,  and  divorce  was  as  easy  as  marriage. 
There  were  of  cour.se  many  hajipy  and  stable  unions,  but  the  moral 
conditions  were  insutferably  easy  and  these,  with  the  lack  of  the 
family  idea,  evidenced  by  the  absence  of  family  names,  afforded 
! no  sound  basis  for  such  a healthy  social  life  as  is  demanded  in  the 

interests  of  strong  nationality.  The  traditional  practice  of  the 
royal  family  in  Siam  has  been  polygamous.  Against  all  this  the 
jire.sent  King  has  .set  himself  as  a rock.  Fnwilling  to  ])erj)etuate 
the  old  conditions  and  unable  jirobably  at  this  time  to  e.stablish 
the  principle  of  inonogomy,  he  has  taken  the  only  cour.se  open  to 
him  and  in  the  face  of  all  Siamese  natural  sentiment,  has  re- 
mained unniarri(‘d.  And  no  breath  of  scandal  has  touched  him 
in  Siam.  Even  tliosi'  Fiiroiiean  elements  which  are  ready  to 
suspect  and  deride  everything  earnest  in  orient ial  life,  do  not 
say  a word  against  the  King’s  private  character.  No  women 
are  allowed  in  the  royal  palace.  We  were  in  Nakon  Sritamarat 
just  before  Ilis  Majesty’s  recent  visit  there  and  orders  had  pre- 
ceded him  that  every  woman  must  be  removed  from  the  neigh- 
borhood of  his  lodging  j)lace.  Since  his  accession  to  the  crown 
at  least,  the  King  has  guarded  himself  with  scrupulous  care.  He 
denounces  i)olygamy  and  social  immorality  on  eveiy  appropriate 
occasion  and  lets  it  be  known  that  men  who  live  by  the  low 
animal  traditions  will  not  enjoy  the  royal  favor.  It  would  seem 

37 


that  he  lias  laid  liohl  cleai-ly  of  Ihe  fmidaiiieiital  axiom  lhat  a 
nation  cannot  lie  built  except  on  foundations  of  personal  mor- 
ality and  social  righteousness. 

When  all  this  has  been  said,  however,  there  remain  the  two 
questions  which  have  already  been  raised,  and  a thii'd. 

il)  Is  there  not  danger  that  the  present  tendencies  may  in- 
vade the  principle  of  religious  liberty  and  through  the  desire  of 
men  to  win  the  King’s  favor,  lead  to  in.sincerity  and  intellectual 
dishonesty?  The  late  King  explicitly  guaranteed  to  his  people 
both  in  north  and  south  Siam  complete  freedom  of  religion  and 
laid  on  them  no  implication  of  disloyalt}’  in  case  they  ernbrace<] 
Christianity.  In  1S78  through  his  repre.sentative  in  Chieng  Mai, 
where  there  had  been  some  cases  of  the  persecution  of  Christians, 
the  King  i.ssued  the  following  royal  command : 

“That  religious  and  civil  duties  do  not  come  in  conflict.  That 
whoever  wi.shes  to  embrace  any  religion  after  seeing  that  it  is 
true  and  jiropei"  to  be  embraced,  is  allowed  to  do  .so  without  any 
i-estriction.  That  Ihe  le.sjionsibility  for  a right  or  wrong  choice 
i-ests  on  the  individual  making  the  choice.  That  there  is  nothing 
in  the  laws  and  customs  of  Siam,  nor  in  its  foreign  treatie.s,  to 
throw  any  restriction  on  the  religious  wor.ship  and  service  of 
any  one. 

“To  be  more  specific:  If  any  jierson  or  persons  wi.sh  to  embrace 
the  Chri.stian  religion,  they  are  freely  permitted  to  follow  their 
own  choice. 

“This  Proclamation  is  to  certify  that  from  this  time  forth  all 
jiersons  are  permitted  to  follow  the  dictates  of  their  own  con- 
science in  all  matters  of  religious  belief  and  practice. 

“It  is,  moreover,  .stidctly  enjoined  on  Princes  and  Kulers.  and 
on  relatives  and  friends  of  tho.se  who  wish  to  become  Christians, 
that  they  throw  no  obstacles  in  their  way.  and  that  no  one  en- 
force any  creed  or  work  which  their  religion  forbids  them  to 
hold  or  to  do — such  as  the  worship  and  feasting  of  demons,  and 
working  on  the  Sabbath  day.  except  in  the  case  of  war  and  other 
great  unavoidable  works,  which,  however,  must  not  be  a mere 
pretence,  but  really  important.  Be  it  further  observed,  that 
they  are  to  have  free  and  unobstructed  ob.servance  of  the  Sabbath 
day,  and  no  obstacle  is  to  be  thrown  in  the  way  of  American  citi- 
zens employing  .such  persons  as  they  may  need,  .since  such  would 
be  a breach  of  the  treaty  between  the  two  countries. 

“Whenever  this  Proclamation  is  made  known  to  the  Prince.s 
and  Rulers  and  Officers  and  People,  they  are  to  beware  and  vio- 
late no  precept  contained  therein.” 

The  i^resent  King  renewed  these  assurances  when  as  Crown 
Prince  he  visited  America  and  at  the  time  of  his  accession  his 
Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs  replying  to  a letter  of  congratulation 
addressed  to  the  King  by  the  foreign  mi.ssionaries  in  Siam, 
wrote : 

“His  Majesty  desires  me  to  exijress  his  sincere  thanks  for 
your  good  wishes  and  to  assure  you  that  mindful  of  the  excellent 

38 


work  performed  by  the  American  missionaries  for  the  enlight- 
enment of  the  people  of  this  conntry,  he  will  not  fail  to  follow 
in  the  footsteps  of  his  Koval  1‘redecessor  in  affording  every  en- 
couragement to  them  in  the  pursuit  of  their  praiseworthy  task.” 

Already  there  are  some  signs  that  these  guarantees  are  en- 
dangei-ed  by  the  iiresent  tendencies.  Absolute  religious  tolera- 
tion and  freedom  has  heretofore  been  a worthy  boast  of  Siam. 
The  imposition  of  religion  tests  as  a condition  of  royal  favor  or 
of  membershi])  in  the  Wild  Tigers  or  of  liolding  office  would  make 
such  a boast  no  longer  jxrssible,  and  would  .set  Siam  in  the  class 
of  the  small  number  of  religiously  intolerant  states.  Even  in 
Turkey  and  Persia  it  has  been  ])Ossible  for  Christians  to  hold 
office  and  religious  tests  were  abandoned  in  j)rogressive  states 
years  ago.  But  in  Siam  a constraint  which  is  in  danger  of  be- 
coming ])er.secution,  has  already  fallen  upon  some  Christians, 
and  it  is  understood  and  oj)enly  stated  in  many  j)laces  that  the 
King  is  oppo.sed  to  the  acce]»tance  of  ('hristianity  by  his  sub- 
jects, and  that  he  desires  instead  to  see  his  j>eo])le  zealous  iu 
the  practice  of  Buddhism.  The  result  is  that  men  convinced  of 
the  truth  of  Christianity  are  influenced  to  di.ssemhle,  and  that 
other  men,  unconvinced,  or  wholly  indifferent,  with  regard  to 
Buddhism,  are  led  to  feign  a faith  which  is  insincere.  Is  this 
wi.se?  Is  it  not  certain  on  the  other  hand  to  undermine  the 
very  sincei-ity  of  national  character  which  the  King  desires  to 
produce?  Would  it  not  be  far  better  to  set  men’s  minds  free,  to 
l)id  them  seek  the  truth  everywhere,  and  Imving  found  it,  freely 
to  live  by  it.  The  King  is  earnest  in  bidding  the  j)eo])le  not  to  be 
led  into  false  imitation  of  foreign  ways.  With  e{puil  earnestne.ss 
he  bids  them  umpiestioningly  to  imitate  their  own  past.  Would 
he  not  do  lH*tter  to  bid  them  to  s(-ek  ami  to  imitate  what  is  true 
wherever  it  is  found,  to  acce]>t  nothing  l»ecause  it  is  Siamese  or  for- 
eign, but  only  because  it  is  true,  and  to  reject  what  they  do  reject 
only  because  it  is  false?  He  wants  to  make  a free  and  hone.st 
nation.  He  can  only  do  it  out  (»f  free  and  honest  men. 

(2)  And  what  will  be  the  effect  upon  Buddhism  of  this  u.se 
of  the  religion  as  an  agency  of  ])olitical  education?  One  might 
justly  ask  whether  in  leaning  ujxui  Buddhism  as  he  is  doing, 
the  King  is  not  tru.sting  to  a broken  ree<l.  Of  all  the  religions 
in  the  world,  jmre  Buddhism  is  least  adajtted  to  create  or  sus- 
tain a s])irit  of  energetic  and  progressive  nationality,  unless  in 
adaj)ting  it  to  such  a ii.'x*,  it  is  so  radically  alteied  as  to  be  no 
longer  i-ecognizable.  Already  the  effects  of  the  present  move- 
ment are  manife.'^ting  themselves.  The  priesthood  no  longer 
occupies  its  old  j)lac(*  of  resj)ect  and  j»ower.  Young  men  may  or 
may  not  entei-  tlie  priesthood,  they  must  enter  the  army.  Ser- 
vice in  the  j)riesthood  is  no  longer  regarded  as  an  indispensable 
l)relude  to  manhood,  to  marriage,  to  influence.  Both  the  govern- 
ment and  the  courts  aie  making  it  easier  for  men  not  to  enter 
the  ju'iesthood  and  to  e.scaj)e  from  it  after  they  have  entered. 
The  j)rice  of  state  jiatronage  is  increased  state  control.  And  the 

39 


governmental  discharge  of  religious  functions  in  the  institutions 
and  services  of  the  state  is  hardening  into  still  deader  formality 
a religion  already  in  peril  from  a want  of  intellectual  life  and 
spiritual  independence.  If  the  King  really  has  at  heart  the  in- 
terests both  of  Buddhism  and  of  nationality  he  is  in  danger  of 
a double  disappointment;  for  Buddhism  cannot  help  him  polit- 
ically and  he  is  in  danger  of  inflicting  irreparable  damage  upon 
Buddhism  religiously. 

(3)  The  third  question  with  regard  to  the  tendencies  which 
we  have  sought  to  analyze  is  the  question  which  is  confronting 
statesmen  of  every  land,  namely,  how  to  keep  the  balance  be- 
tween the  principle  of  nationali.sm  and  the  broader  principle  of 
human  unity,  which  is  sure  now  to  arise  from  the  affront  and 
wrong  which  it  has  suffered  throughout  the  whole  world,  to  lay 
its  demands  upon  mankind  with  a new  power.  Men  engaged 
in  such  a task  as  the  King  has  undertaken  in  Siam,  if  they  do 
their  work  strongly  are  in  danger  of  offending  against  the  inter- 
national mind.  The  King  is  evidently  doing  the  best  he  can,  but 
if  any  friend  could  .speak  to  him  it  would  be  well  if  he  could  beg 
him  to  seek  in  this  matter  to  be  a greater  man  than  even  the 
greatest  of  the  European  nation-builders  and  to  seek  to  make 
his  own  nationality,  if  he  can,  distinctive  and  great,  without 
comparisons  which  are  injurious  in  their  rebound,  and  without 
disparagements,  esijecially  of  that  great  people  whose  struggles 
at  home  in  China  deserve  the  deepest  sympathy  of  mankind  and 
who  constitute  the  most  industidous  and  productive  element  in 
the  population  of  Siam. 

It  was  stated  at  the  beginning  that  the  one  important  problem 
of  foreign  diplomacy  with  which  Siam  has  now  to  deal  is  the 
question  of  the  revision  of  her  treaties.  Great  Britain  and  Den- 
mark and  Japan  have  surrendered  their  extra-territorial  juris- 
diction over  all  their  subjects,  and  France  has  siirrendered  hers 
over  her  Asiatic  subjects.  Ko  nation,  however,  has  as  yet  re- 
leased Siam  from  what  may  at  the  beginning  have  been  a justi- 
fiaible  but  is  now  an  intolerable  limitation  of  her  economic 
autonomj^,  namely  the  restriction  of  import  duties  to  three  per 
cent.  Such  an  abridgement  of  the  sovereignty  of  Siam  should 
be  terminated  and  Siam  is  entitled  to  ask  that  this  should  be 
done  without  the  humiliation  and  injustice  of  having  to  purchase 
her  own  sovereign  rights  by  territorial  or  other  considerations. 
The  principle  of  the  missionary  enterprise  which  seeks  to  build 
up  independent  native  churches,  it  should  be  said  again,  takes 
pleasure  in  the  establishment  and  recognition  of  complete  po- 
litical autonomy  in  the  independent  nations ; and  missionaries, 
who,  as  missionaries,  could  never  ask  in  the  first  instance  for  the 
establishment  of  extra-territorial  jurisdiction  in  their  interest, 
should  be  and. are  alwaj’s  the  first  to  welcome  its  surrender  and 
to  take  their  full  place  among  the  people  and  under  the  govern- 
ment which  they  have  come  to  serve,  enjoying  the  rights  and 
discharging,  as  far  as  citizens  of  another  nation  can,  all  the 

40 


I 


duties  of  the  citizens  of  the  nation  whose  highest  interests  they 
have  come  to  advance. 

And  it  is  this  force,  which  the  Christian  missionaries  repre- 
sent, and  of  which  the  King  expressed  such  appreciation  at  the 
' time  of  his  accession,  which  can  do  more  than  any  other  to  ac- 
complish the  ends  which  the  King  has  upon  his  heart.  Already 
this  force  has  done  a great  deal.  It  introduced  the  first  press 
into  Siam  and  produced  the  first  Siamese  type,  it  founded  the 
‘ first  hospitals,  the  first  modern  schools,  the  first  and  only  leper 
asylum.  “Your  missionaries,”  said  the  Minister  of  Foreign 
I Affairs,  “first  brought  civilization  to  my  country.”  They  repre- 
sent  those  principles  of  intellectual  freedom,  personal  character, 

: social  righteousness  and  national  integrity,  which  are  the  great 

I need  of  Siam.  Many  of  their  ethical  teachings  are  found  in 

■|  Buddhism  also,  and  the  greater  this  community  can  be  shown  to 

II  be,  the  more  Christians  will  rejoice.  But  what  Siam  needs, 

I neither  Buddhi.sm,  nor  the  army,  nor  schools,  nor  the  influence 

:j  of  any  sovereign,  however  able  and  earnest,  can  ever  provide. 

II  She  needs  a power,  deep,  pervasive,  regenerating,  such  a power 

I as  historv"  shows  is  to  be  found  nowhere  else  than  in  a profound 

I faith  in  a living,  personal  God,  a power  which  is  operating  in  the 

i world  today  in  its  pure.st  form  for  the  making  of  men  and  nations 

r in  the  Christian  go.spel.  This  power  by  every  agency  of  service 

! which  they  can  devise  and  by  the  direct  and  straightforward 

I teaching  of  truth  across  the  land,  the  missionaries  are  seeking 

I to  communicate  to  Siam.  That  man  is  the  best  lover  of  Siam, 

I and  will  in  the  future  be  seen  to  have  been  its  greatest  bene- 

t factor  and  .state.sman,  who  will  realize  that  this  is  his  country’s 

j!  greatest  need  and  will  oi)cn  the  widest  door  for  the  access  of  this 

L power  to  the  heart  of  the  nation. 

K.  E.  S. 


41 


3.  SOWING  THE  SEED  OF  THE  KINGDOM  IN  SIAM 


Tap  Teang,  June  2,  1015. 

The  .sower  went  forth  to  sow.  This  time  he  did  not  go  alone. 
Half  a dozen  of  his  friends  accompanied  him,  so  that  when  he 
grew  weary  they  might  take  up  the  work  each  in  his  turn.  The 
field  was  the  market  place  of  Tap  Teang  in  the  lower  peninsula 
of  Siam,  and  it  was  on  the  first  of  the  market  days  of  last  June 
when  this  little  band  of  sowers  took  po.s^iession  of  their  corner 
of  the  market  place  to  .sow  the  good  seed  of  the  Kingdom  of 
Heaven. 

The  great  sheds  covering  an  acre  or  more  were  crowded  with 
the  people  from  the  little  farms  and  villages  scattered  through 
the  jungle  and  along  the  streams.  Each  one  who  had  brought 
produce  to  sell  paid  his  cent  and  a half  as  he  came  in  at  the  door- 
way for  the  privilege  of  trading  for  this  one  market  day.  The 
sower  and  his  friends  were  always  there  on  market  days  and 
they  paid  twenty-four  ticals,  a little  less  than  .^10.00  for  the 
annual  privilege  of  their  .sowing  j)lace  in  the  corner  of  the  market. 

The  long  platforms  that  ran  all  around  the  market  and  to  and 
fro  across  it  were  crowded  Avith  the  sellers,  sitting  side  by  side 
with  their  wares  before  them.  Here  was  one  Avith  great,  live 
fi.sh  that  leaped  ont  of  the  basket,  and  here  was  another  selling 
fish  also,  bnt  the  odor  of  her  goods  proclaimed  that  her  fish  had 
been  dead  for  many  a day.  There  Avere  long,  round  fish  which 
live  in  mud  and  can  make  their  way  over  the  ground  from  one 
pool  to  another.  There  were  live  pigs  roped  in  crates  and  car- 
ried suspended  back  doAviiAvards  from  long  poles.  And  there 
were  bunches  of  bananas  and  pineapples  fresh  from  the  gardens, 
and  many  frnits  and  vegetables  such  as  an  American  boy  or  girl 
never  saw.  There  was  a Chine'^e  taffy  man  making  his  taffy  in 
the  middle  of  the  market.  There  were  little  cubes  of  grey  clay 
for  the  people  suffering  from  hook  Avorm.  who  liked  to  eat  dirt, 
and  there  were  balls  of  brown  Siamese  butter  made  of  decayed, 
pulverized  fish.  There  Avere  miserable  little  trinkets  imported 
from  India  and  Europe,  with  cheap,  tawdry  cloths,  not  to  be 
compared  with  the  well-woven,  home-made  panungs  offered  near 
by.  Here  and  there  were  restaurant  booths  offering  food  and 
drink,  the  very  sight  of  which  Avould  send  shivers  through  visi- 
tors from  abroad. 

Up  and  down  along  the  platforms  nioA’ed  the  crowds  of  men 
and  women  and  little  children,  many  of  them  ragged  and  not 
many  of  them  clean,  bnt  all  of  them  cheerful  and  contented,  with 
that  fatal  contentment  which  is  the  great  curse  of  peoples  to 
whom  the  earth  supplies  a livelihood  too  easily  and  whose  wants 
dc^  not  drive  them  to  aixinous  toil.  Although  a tropical  sun  was 
beating  down,  men  and  women  alike  were  modestly  dressed,  and 

42 


only  a few  little  children  roamed  about  naked,  save  for  one  little 
piece  of  tinsel  jeweliw  tied  around  the  neck,  and  another  around 
the  little  loins.  What  was  there  to  life  for  these  but  the  little 
roxind  of  eating  and  drinking  and  lying  down  to  sleep?  Did  life 
hold  more  meaning  than  this  for  any  of  them? 

Then  the  sower  stood  up  to  sow.  A soug  fir.st  in  some  familiar 
tune  of  the  people  and  then  in  a strange  tune  from  a far-off  land 
caught  the  attention  of  those  who  passed  by  and  they  stopped  to 
li.sten.  Behind  the  sower  hung  a great  map  of  the  world  and  he 
pointed  out  on  it  the  lands  east  and  west  and  spoke  of  the 
brotherhood  of  tliose  who  dwelt  in  them  and  of  such  a brother- 
hood as  possible  and  real  only  in  a Fatherhood  such  as  Jesus 
Christ  revealed.  At  tliis,  an  old  man  with  The  face  of  one  of  our 
Revolutionary  sire.s,  but  clad  simply  after  the  fashion  of  the 
Siamese  fanner,  in  an  ami)le  waist  cloth,  .stopped  to  listen.  What 
he  heard  was  strange  to  him  but  it  pleased  him,  and  moving  up 
toward  the  preacher  he  told  him  that  what  he  was  saying  was 
surely  true.  The  old  man’s  soul  was  as  soil  broken  for  the  sower, 
and  over  the  soil  made  ready,  he  cast  forth  his  seed.  This  Father 
of  all  was  also  the  Maker  of  all.  How  better  could  the  wonder 
of  our  bodies  and  the  maivel  of  the  world  be  explained?  And 
were  there  not  deej)  needs  in  our  own  hearts  which  called  out  to 
such  a Fathei-  for  Ills  help?  Indeed  there  were,  the  old  man 
assented.  And  these  very  needs,  the  j)reacher  went  on,  the  Father 
had  ‘^ent  His  Son  into  the  world  to  meet,  and  he  was  there  to 
tell  of  this  Son,  of  the  light  which  He  would  give  to  the  dark- 
ness of  our  heart.s,  and  the  peace  of  forgiven  sin  and  the  security 
of  a strong  and  steadfast  succor.  This  was  a good  message,  said 
the  old  man,  and  he  sat  down  on  the  edge  of  the  platform  from 
which  the  sower  w:is  .sowing  his  .shmI.  Then  one  of  the  friends  of 
the  .sower  stood  nj»,  and  sjieaking  to  the  old  man,  who  had  al- 
ready taken  it  for  gianted  that  the  message  was  meant  jnst  for 
him,  said  that  he  wished  to  beai-  testimony  of  what  he  himself 
knew.  Had  the  old  man  in  crossing  his  rivei-,  or  fishing  in  the 
stream,  ever  longed  for  a s(‘cnre  i)ole  standing  steadfastly  against 
the  cnrr(*nt  to  which  he  conld  tie  his  boat?  Indeed  he  had,  said 
the  <dd  man.  Well,  j\ist  such  an  anchorage  had  this  friend  of 
the  .sower  found  in  Chi-ist,  and  as  just  such  a steadfast  friend 
conld  he  comme!id  him  to  every  man.  At  this  the  old  man 
decided  to  lay  aside  whatever  other  errand  he  might  have  had 
and  drew  his  feet  nj)  from  the  ground  and  settled  him.self  for 
the  rest  of  the  day  on  the  ])latfonn,  by  the  side  of  the  sower  and 
his  friend.s,  and  there,  where  above  his  head  the  winds  blew  to 
and  fro  the  maj)  of  the  world  and  the  American  continents  which 
was  by  the  old  man’s  side,  he  sat  and  drank  in  for  the  first  time, 
the  wonderful  story  so  dear  and  familiar  to  us. 

One  by  one  three  other  old  men.  drifting  by  in  the  crowd, 
were  caught  by  .some  word  jn.st  as  the  first  old  man  had  been, 
and  first  sat  and  listened  and  commented,  and  then  turned  to 
speak  one  to  another  of  this  which  they  had  heai-d. 

43 


As  the  day  wore  on  the  crowds  thinned  out  and  wore  away. 
Those  who  had  come  in  in  the  morning  laden  with  the  produce 
of  their  own  toil,  turned  homeward  with  that  which  they  had 
taken  in  exchange,  and  presently  the  sower  and  his  friends  wrap- 
ped up  their  map,  gathered  together  their  books,  put  away  the 
tea  pot  and  cups  from  which  any  had  been  free  to  help  themselves 
during  the  day,  and  went  off  to  their  homes.  The  old  man  also 
arose  and  turned  his  steps  homeward  too.  but  he  went  out  not 
as  he  had  come.  New  thoughts  of  God  were  in  his  heart,  and 
that  which  had  been  planted  there  was  a seed  which  could  not 
die.  Next  year  that  which  had  been  a seed  this  year  will  be  a 
blade,  then  the  ear,  and  after  that  the  full  com  in  the  ear.  The 
sower  will  be  visiting  soon  the  old  man  in  the  village  to  which 
he  returned,  and  he  will  find  there  a group  of  people  to  whom 
the  old  man  has  told  the  wonderful  tidings  that  came  to  him 
that  June  day  in  the  market  place  in  Tap  Teang. 

Not  far  from  where  the  .sower  stood,  on  a platform  from  whiHi 
the  vendors  had  gone  away,  and  at  the  verA'  moment  that  the  old 
man  was  listening,  eager  and  intent,  to  the  words  of  the  sower, 
a Chinese  opium  smoker  lay  down  beside  his  lamp.  A few  rags 
covered  his  emaciated  body.  A foot  from  which  festering  ulcers 
had  eaten  away  the  heel,  protruded  from  his  rags.  Wearily  he 
pushed  the  opium  into  his  pipe  and  drank  in  the  benumbing,  soul- 
deadening  smoke.  Little  by  little  he  slipped  away  into  the  deg- 
radation that  is  worse  than  death.  Little  by  little  in  the  same 
hour  the  light  that  is  life  was  beginning  to  shine  iipon  the  soul 
of  the  old  man  who  sat  li.stening  to  the  sower’s  word.  We  who 
were  there  and  saw,  as  we  left  the  .sower  and  his  friends,  and  the 
old  men  who  hung  upon  their  words,  passed  by  the  opium  smoker 
in  his  despair  and  shame,  and  from  the  market  walked  out  on 
the  wide  road  that  leads  down  to  the  river  Trang,  thinking  of 
what  we  had  seen  in  the  place  where  men  traffic  in  Tap  Teang, 
of  the  Saviour  and  sin,  both  at  their  work  in  human  lives. 

B.  E.  S. 


44 


4.  A LITTLE  CLINIC  IN  COMPARATIVE  RELIGION 


Tap  Teang,  June  3,  1915. 

The  clinic  was  held  in  Tap  Teang  in  the  province  of  Trang, 
monthon  of  Puket,  in  the  lower  peninsula  of  Siam.  The  partici- 
pants sat  in  the  broad  passageway  that  ran  through  the  mis- 
sionary’s house  and  served  as  dining-room,  reception-room  and 
librarv.  It  was  the  hot  season  and  the  tropical  siin  was  blazing 
without.  Across  the  lawn  was  the  jungle  from  which  the  tropical 
birds  were  calling.  Pineapple.s,  cocoanuts,  pomegranates  and  a 
score  of  fruits  were  ripening  in  the  garden.  Village  people  and 
lonely  dwellers  in  the  forest  passed  silently  by  with  their  bur- 
dens in  a many-colored  stream  of  life  on  the  road  by  the  jungle 
edge. 

The  clinic  was  in  the  nature  of  a studj’  of  the  power  of  Chris- 
tianity and  Buddhism  to  meet  human  need.  It  was  not  an 
academic  study  from  a distance  of  ten  thou.sand  miles.  The  par- 
ticipants who  provided  the  material  were  men  who  had  been 
brought  up  in  Buddhism,  who  knew  it  thoroughly  from  within, 
wlio  had  honestly  tried  its  Way  and  who  having  now  as  honestly 
tried  Christianity  and  known  it  also  from  within,  were  able  to 
make  such  an  intelligent  and  authoritative  comparison  as  can 
not  be  made  by  western  Christians  who  have  learned  Buddhism 
only  from  books,  or  by  easteni  Buddhi.sts  who  may  not  have 
studied  Christianity  at  all,  or  who  have  derived  their  knowledge 
of  it  only  from  nominal  Chri.stians.  Only  a few  steps  away  was 
a Buddliist  wat  with  its  shed  of  Buddhist  images,  its  j»alm 
thatched  liouse  of  j)riests  and  novice.s,  and  its  wat  scliool  for  the 
boj’s  of  tlie  village.  Some  of  tlie  i)riests  in  their  picture.sque 
yellow  robes  pa.'^sed  by  on  the  jungle  road  as  we  talked  together, 
with  their  chelas  hearing  their  rice  bowls  after  them.  For  cen- 
turies uj)on  centuries  tlie  influence  of  Buddhism  had  lain  upon 
tlie  land  ami  the  clinic  was  held  against  a background  of  reality. 
AVe  began  with  the  question,  ‘‘What  was  it  that  you  did  not  find 
in  Buddhism  that  you  did  find  in  Christianity?  And  was  this 
the  actually  comiielling  reason  for  your  acceptance  of  the  Cliri.s- 
tian  faith?” 

Loop  made  the  first  reply.  He  was  a short,  shy  man  who  had 
been  for  .seven  years  in  the  Buddhist  qiriesthood.  For  all  the.se 
year.s,  he  said,  he  had  felt  the  need  of  a Saviour.  That  need 
Buddhism  had  not  met  and  had  not  profes.setl  to  meet.  Buddha 
had  succeeded  only  in  saving  himself  and  had  frankly  told  his 
di.sciples  that  he  could  not  iiresunie  to  .save  anyone  else, — that 
every  man  must  be  his  own  saviour.  And  how  indeed  could 
Buddha  save  or  help?  The  salvation  which  he  himself  had 
.sought  and  attained  was  annihilation  and,  annihilated  in  Nir- 

45 


vaiia,  how  could  he  aid  (liose  wlio  w(u-e  still  s1ru{?};ling  in  the 
toils  of  life?  There  could  he  no  access  to  Buddha,  for  Buddha 
hiiuself  had  ceased  to  he.  His  Buddhist  jjrayers,  Loojj  said,  he 
came,  as  he  meditated,  to  realize,  reached  no  one.  An  extin- 
guished Buddha  could  not  hear  them  and  the  Buddhist  doctrine 
was  that  there  was  no  god  to  hear.  All  that  Buddha  could  do 
he  had  done.  He  had  left  his  example  and  his  exhortation. 
With  these  each  man  must  work  out  his  salvation  for  himself. 
It  came,  accordingly  to  thi.s.  that  if  Buddhism  was  true  and 
Buddha  had  attained  extinction  hy  his  Way,  then  there  was  no 
saving  helj)  from  him  for  man.  If  there  was  such  saving  help 
from  him  for  man  and  if  he  could  heai-  and  answer  i»rayer,  then 
Buddhism  was  false  and  Buddha  Imd  not  attained  the  end  he 
sought.  Not  to  salvation,  hut  to  this  desi)air,  had  Buddhism 
led  his  heart.  With  joy  and  deliverance  he  had  learned  of  the 
living  Saviour  Je.sus  ('hrist  hy  whom,  as  the  i)resent  and  ac- 
cessible ])Ower  of  God,  he  had  a salvation  that  was  real  now  and 
rich  with  abounding  and  eternal  significance  forever. 

Sook  was  the  second  to  make  answer.  He  also  had  been  for 
years  in  the  priesthood  and  he  j)roceede<l  to  contrast  his  present 
Christian  exj)erience  with  the  ])recisely  op]>osite  experience  of 
his  life  in  the  wat.  In  the  first  place,  he  said  he  had  then  no 
assurance  of  faith.  There  was  nothing  that  he  could  rest  upon 
that  gave  him  security  of  his  salvation'.  He  had  no  conscious- 
ness and  he  could  make  no  satisfactory  calculations  that  the 
merit  which  he  was  accumulating  would  wipe  away  his  sin.s.  In 
the  second  place,  his  Buddhist  longing  for  a guarantee  of  the 
]»erpetual  rememibrance  of  his  good  deeds  was  met  by  Christ’s 
a.ssurance  that  He  would  ]>ersonally  remember  even  a cup  of 
cold  water  given  in  His  name.  Buddha  had  given  no  as.surance. 
How  could  he  do  so?  How  could  extinction  and  remembrance 
consist  together?  Plven  on  the  grounds  of  securing  a man’s 
accumulation  of  merit,  Sook’s  heart  had  turned  to  Christianity, 
for  here  was  a living  blaster  who  would  keep  record  in  His 
personal  remembrance.  And  what  remembrance  could  there 
be  with  the  dead  master  with  whom  Buddhism  bade  his  heart 
to  be  content.  He  knew  of  no  memory  but  i)ersonal  memory, 
and  that  was  precisely  what  Buddhism  did  not  i»rovide.  In  the 
third  place,  Christianify  offered  in  many  j)laces,  of  which  John 
J:l()  was  one,  a true  and  living  Saviour  from  sin.  There  was 
none  such  in  Buddhism.  It  knew  absolutely  nothing  outside  of 
one’s  self  that  could  take  away  sin.  The  only  escape  must  be 
by  the  sinner’s  own  deed  and  in  ])roportiou  to  the  inexorable 
profit  and  loss  account  of  his  acts.  But  in  Christianity  the 
sin  was  taken  clean  away  and  atoiunl  for.  And  the  loftier 
thought  of  salvation  was  accom])auied  by  a deeper  view  of  sin. 
In  Buddhism  he  had  never  felt  that  he  was  a sinner  against 
Buddha,  and  there  was  no  god  against  whom  to  sin.  He  was  a 
sinner  because  he  had  sinned  against  himself  or  broken  the  law, 
and  the  law  itself  had  been  to  him  only  a human  way  and  not  a 

4G 


niviiie  will.  Ill  Christianity  he  saw  sin  in  profonnder  meaning 
and  in  significances  of  which  Buddhism  with  its  deadening  in- 
terpretation could  not  conceive. 

The  third  to  speak  was  Choon.  He  had  been  a novice  in  the 
wat  but  had  not  gone  on  into  the  full  priesthood.  He  had  come 
to  the  mission  hospital  suffering  with  pleurisy  and,  although 
the  medical  missionary  was  away  on  furlough,  the  missionary 
nurse  in  the  hospital  had  been  bold  to  operate  to  save  his  life, 
and  he  was  up  and  about  now,  though  still  needing  to  carry  in 
his  body  the  drain  for  his  disea.se.  He  had  been  taught  Budd- 
hism from  his  earliest  childhood  and,  he  was  only  a child  now 
in  the  Chri.stian  faith,  but  the  contrast  which  imiire.s.sed  him 
most  was  between  the  Trinity  of  Biiddhisni  and  the  Trinity  of 
Christianity.  In  Buddhism  the  Trinity  consisted  of  Buddha, 
the  Three  Baskets  of  the  Law,  and  the  I’rie.sthood.  With  two 
of  the.se  three,  Choon  had  been  well  acipiainted.  The  Baskets 
of  the  Law  he  had  studied  and  the  third  jiarty  of  the  Trinity 
was  made  up  of  his  neighbors.  But  the  first  i>erson  of  the 
Buddhist  Trinity  he  could  not  know,  and  with  him  he  could 
have  no  contact  at  all.  Cut  off  from  any  help  from  Buddha, 
could  the  Law  or  the  Prie.sthooil  help  him?  As  he  had  said,  he 
knew  them  both  well,  and  no  help  wliatever  had  they  ever  given 
him,  and  no  helj)  could  they  ever  give.  They  had  no  eternal  life 
for  him  here  and  when  he  died  there  was  no  help  that  thej" 
could  offer  him  for  the  world  to  come.  He  need  not  .sj)eak  in 
contrast  of  the  access  which  he  had  to  the  Christian  Trinity  and 
of  tlie  love  and  helj)  and  saving  j)ower  and  eternal  lio])e  which 
it  had  brought  to  him.  He  would  only  add  that  Buddlia  had 
never  impres.sed  him  as  the  owner  of  his  life,  nor  had  he  ever 
been  regarded  by  him  as  a ])rovidence  thinking  and  caring  for 
his  life,  but  he  looked  now  to  desns  (ffirist  as  his  j)ersonal  pro- 
prietor and  the  guide  of  his  way  and  the  comj)lete  sovereign  of 
liis  soul.  Jesus,  moreover,  in  a whole  realm  of  being  strange  to 
Buddha,  had  made  atonement  for  his  sin  and  taken  it  far  away. 

The  clinic  was  interrnj)ted  at  this  point  greatly  to  its  en- 
richment by  the  visit  of  tlie  Cliinese  laundryman  of  Tap  Teang, 
Knon  Luing,  “Sminy  Jim,”  tlie  missionaries  called  him,  and  he 
came  in  njion  us  like  a .sun  burst  with  his  genial  smile  and  ir- 
repressible, contagions  laughter.  He  had  been  for  sixteen  years 
in  America  and  had  been  baptized  as  a Christian  in  the  Green 
Ave.  Methodist  Church  in  Brooklyn.  He  had  returned  to  south- 
ern China  and  then  from  southern  ('hina  had  come  in  the  great 
immigrant  inva.sion  of  the  Malay  jieninsnla  and  found  his  way 
to  Trang  and  then  inland  through  the  jungle  to  Tap  Teang.  He 
was  himself  an  incarnate  treati.se  on  comparative  religion.  Who- 
ever wishtHl  to  coini>are  Christianity  and  Buddhism  needed  only 
to  look  at  Knon  Luing  and  his  neighbors.  His  life  bore  wit- 
ness to  the  light  of  the  knowledge  of  the  glory  of  God  which 
shone  in  the  face  of  Jesus  Christ.  His  jiride  in  his  two  chil- 
dren, not  his  boy  only — that  would  have  been  intelligible — but 

47 


in  his  older  daughter  also,  was  in  itself  the  manifestation  of  a 
new  social  principle  in  the  community. 

When  Kuon  Luing  had  gone,  both  taking  away  and  leaving 
behind  the  light  of  his  countenance.  Ah  Toon  spoke.  The  other 
three  had  been  Siamese,  but  Ah  Toon  was  a Chinaman.  He 
had  been  originally  Dr.  Dunlap’s  coolie,  then  his  cook,  but  his 
quick  intelligence,  his  true  life  and  his  earnest  faith  had  com- 
mended him  for  the  evangelistic  work  which  he  was  now  doing 
with  steadily  increasing  power.  Buddhism,  said  he,  was  a thor- 
oughly worldly  religion.  There  was  nothing  heavenly  about  it 
either  in  its  origin  or  in  the  offers  which  it  made  to  the  human 
heart.  It  did  not  lay  claim  to  any  divine  origin.  Buddha  had 
plainly  declared  that  he  was  only  a man,  that  he  had  di.scovered 
his  doctrine  for  himself.  All  the  conceptions  of  the  religion 
were  earthly  conceptions.  It  had  none  but  earthly  springs  from 
which  the  thirsty  could  didnk.  Christianity,  on  the  other  hand, 
had  come  down  from  above.  Its  central  principle,  the  atone- 
ment, its  central  doctrine,  the  cross,  had  never  been  conceived 
by  men  nor  come  from  man.  The  offers  which  it  now  made  to 
men  were  offers  of  life  and  strength  in  God.  Here,  notably,  the 
words  of  John’s  go.spel  were  true  of  Chri.stianity  in  its  contrast 
with  Buddhism,  “A’o  man  has  ascended  up  to  heaven,  but  he 
that  came  down  from  heaven,  even  the  Son  of  Man  which  is  in 
heaven.  He  that  cometh  from  above  is  above  all.  He  that  is 
of  the  earth  is  earthly  and  speaketh  of  the  earth.  He  that 
cometh  from  heaven  is  above  all.” 

All  this  had  been  in  answer  to  the  inquiry  as  to  what  it  was 
in  Christianity  which  had  had  living  and  drawing  power  to 
them,  and  why  Buddhism  had  left  them  unsatisfied.  Their 
answers  seemed  to  reduce  themselves  to  a flat  charge  of  athei.sm 
against  their  old  Buddhist  thought.  To  clear  up  this  point  ac- 
cordingly, we  asked  them  whether  they  were  prepared  to  stand 
by  this  charge.  What  had  they  actually  thought  of  God  in 
their  old  Buddhist  days?  It  soon  appeared  that  their  Budd- 
hism had  been  a logical  atheism,  but  that  it  had  never  been 
able  to  extirpate  the  fundamental  faith  of  the  human  heart  in 
God.  Had  that  faith,  we  were  also  anxious  to  know,  avenged 
itself  against  Buddha  by  making  him  the  god  whose  existence 
he  had  denied?  Loop  replied  that  he  knew  that  Buddha  was 
not  God,  for  Buddha  had,  as  a matter  of  fact,  worshipped  gods 
outside  of  himself,  but  that  he  knew  that  when  he  himself  had 
been  a Buddhist  he  had  no  thought  of  God  and  had  not  regarded 
Buddha  as  God,  for  Buddha  had  died  and  attained  extinction, 
so  that  he  could  not  be  God.  All  this  was  true  of  his  own  re- 
ligious experience.  Loop  said,  and  yet  he  must  add  that  when  he 
was  in  the  priesthood  he  had  a vague  idea  of  a great  author  of 
his  life,  and  at  times  he  had  vagueh*  worshipped  Him  and  prayed 
to  Him  as  ‘‘Most  Gracious  Father.”  He  and  the  other  men 
thought  that,  both  in  the  temples  and  in  common  life,  the  Siamese 
people  had  this  dim  idea  of  a universal  and  benevolent  fatherly 

48 


providence,  greatly  obscured  by  Buddhism  and  its  images,  but 
indestructible  and  asserting  itself  in  times  of  trouble  and  dis- 
tress. The  idea  did  not  come  from  Buddhism,  for  it  lay  behind 
Buddhism  and  could  not  be  reconciled  with  it.  In  times  of 
storm  in  the  northeast  monsoon,  along  the  Gulf  of  Siam,  the 
sailors,  they  said,  would  often  fall  on  their  faces  and,  forgetting 
their  Buddhism,  call  aloud,  “O  most  Gracious  Father,  still  this 
tempest,”  or  “O  most  Gracious  Father,  send  a favoring  wind.” 
Ah  Toon  said  this  idea  had  not  been  as  strong  with  him  before 
his  contact  with  the  Siamese  as  it  had  been  since,  and  that  he 
believed  it  came  from  a strain  in  Siamese  thought  closely  akin 
to  the  ideas  of  natural  religion  in  the  West. 

The  influence  of  the  late  King,  who  had  accepted  many  Chris- 
tian ideas,  had  promoted  phraseologies  in  official  addresses,  re- 
cognizing a divine  per.sonal  providence.  In  taking  leave  of  Gen- 
eral Grant  on  his  visit  to  Siam  during  his  journey  around  the 
world,  the  King  had  said,  “May  the  One  who  is  supreme  in  all  the 
universe  and  who  controls  in  the  affairs  of  men  and  who  governs 
the  elements,  guard,  keep  and  defend  you  in  your  journeyings.” 
Dr.  Dunlap  believed  that  .such  language,  often  repeated  by  the 
late  King,  had  encouraged  the  ideas  of  natural  religion,  and  he 
quoted  an  oath  of  office  taken  by  judges  in  one  of  the  criminal 
courts,  running,  “Buddha,  the  Scriptures  and  the  Priesthood, 
and  the  One  who  is  supreme  in  the  universe,  who  knows  the 
hearts  of  all  men,  who  is  present  with  all  men,  who  knows  the 
deeds  of  all  men,  be  witness  to  me  that  in  taking  this  appointed 
office  I should  discharge  all  my  duties  in  truth  and  fidelity.” 
It  was  true,  the  men  thought,  that  ideas  like  these  only  occas- 
ionally forced  themselves  forward,  and  that  the  thought  of  God 
needed  by  the  soul  was  associated  in  the  minds  of  tlie  common 
l)eople  with  the  images  of  Buddha,  and  that  by  the  ironical 
judgment  of  time  the  great  teacher  who  had  discarded  God, 
had  been  puni.shed  by  deification,  and  that  before  his  own  image 
in  ten  thousand  temples  men  knelt  down  for  a worship  which 
he  had  taught  them  was  destitute  of  meaning  and  of  power. 

The  character  of  Christ  fills  so  neces.sary  and  efl'ective  a place 
in  Christian  ai)ologetics  at  home,  and  has  of  late  years  filled  so 
large  a place  in  missionarj^  apologetics  on  the  foreign  field,  and 
in  the  study  of  the  relations  of  Christianity  and  the  non-Chris- 
tian religions,  that  we  asked  this  little  group  in  Tap  Teang 
what  elements  in  Christ’s  character  most  impressed  their  minds 
and  hearts,  e.specially  in  com])arison  with  the  character  of 
Gautama.  We  were  greatly  sui‘i)rised  to  have  them  deliberately 
pass  by  the  direct  i)oint  of  our  inquiry.  It  turned  out  that  it 
was  not  the  human  character  of  Jesus  which  interested  them  at 
all,  but  His  meaning  for  their  experience  as  a present  super- 
natural Kedeemer  and  Lord.  These  aspects  of  Christ  as  an 
eternally  efficient  and  saving  per.son  filled  all  their  horizon,  and 
they  were  not  specially  interested  in  letting  Him  down,  as  it 
seemed  to  them,  to  the  level  of  the  man  Gautama,  and  compar- 

49 


iiig  the  two  ill  tlieii-  earthly  lives.  And  yet  now  that  they  were 
put  to  it,  the  coinparison  interested  tlu^i,  although  they  would 
not  have  thought  of  attaching  much  importance  to  it  in  this 
form. 

“The  conception  of  (Mirist’s  character  which  appeals  to  me,” 
said  ]>oo]),  “is  the  New  Testament  doctrine  of  Him  as  the  cre- 
ator of  all  thing.s,  showing  the  wisdom  and  beneficence  of  His 
character  in  the  creation.  I like  also  the  thought  of  Jesus  as 
the  light  of  the  world,  enlightening  men  spiritually  and  she^l- 
ding  a great  brightness  upon  the  soul.  But  the  supreme  reason 
for  my  belief  in  Jesus  and  my  loyal  attachment  to  Him,  is  the 
Cros.s.  The  Cross  and  its  revelation  of  the  character  of  Christ 
distinguish  Him  from  all  other  gods  that  I have  heard  of,  and 
Christ’s  d^’ing  for  sinners  is  superior  to  anything  that  I have 
heard  asserted  in  any  other  religion.” 

“Jesus’  life  on  earth,”  .said  Sook,  “far  transcended  the  life 
of  Buddha.  The  latter  was  all  centered  in  him.self.  while  Christ’s 
life  did  not  center  in  Himself.  He  went  about  doing  good  to 
others  and  meeting  human  need.  This  attracted  me  to  Jesu.s. 
And  yet,  while  Jesus  helped  jieojile  whom  He  met  while  He  was 
on  earth,  this  would  nevei-  have  saved  mankind  or  me.  The 
transcending  thing  is  that  Christ,  in  order  to  save  man,  laid 
down  His  life  for  sin.  Bmldha  did  nothing  to  .save  men  except  to 
teach  them  what  he  believed  was  the  way  in  which  they  might 
save  themselves.” 

“Buddha,  in  walking  over  the  world,”  said  Choon.  “met  misery 
and  tied  from  it.  Je.sus  met  it,  endured  it  and  miraculously 
helped  it.  He  did  not  abhor  the  .sight  of  suffering.  It  appealed 
to  Him  and  he  went  to  it.  I think  there  is  a good  deal  of  simi- 
larity of  teaching  between  Buddha  and  Christ,  but  their  inner 
jiriuciples  were  fundamentally  different.  Buddha  begged  bread, 
Jesus  supplied  it.”  T’])on  being  reminded  of  the  two  contrasted 
sayings, — Buddha's,  “I  am  no  man’s  servant,”  and  Christ’s,  “I 
am  in  the  midst  of  you  as  one  that  serveth,”  Choon  answered, 
saying,  “Ye.s,  those  sayings  are  both  true.” 

“To  me,”  said  Ah  Toon,  “this  is  the  great  contrast, — the  con- 
fidence and  assurance  of  Jesus  against  Buddha’s  uncertainty.  It 
is  said  that  Buddha  taught  the  way  to  heaven,  but  all  he  did 
was  to  exhort  men  to  acipiire  merit,  and  I do  not  believe  that 
he  ever  assured  his  discijiles  that  he  or  they  had  attained  the 
heavenly  way,  but  Jesus  did,  ‘I  am  the  Way.  I go  to  prepare 
a place  for  you.  Whither  I go  ye  know,  and  the  way  ye  know.’  ” 

These  were  all  of  them  simple  men,  untraine^l  in  any  western 
school.  They  had  never  read  and  could  not  read  an  English 
book.  They  did  not  jiossess  a single  commentary  or  expository 
volume  in  their  own  language,  but  they  had  learnetl  from  the 
New  Testament,  and  from  their  own  hearts,  where  what  Pro- 
fessor Denney  calls  the  “center  of  gravity”  in  Christianity  is  to 
be  found,  and  by  their  own  instinct  and  under  the  leadership  of 
the  missionary  teaching  which  they  had  received,  they  had  gone 
straight  to  “one  of  the  most  prominent  and  enviable  character- 

50 


istics  of  the  New  Testament  relioions  life”  as  Professor  Denney 
describes  it  in  his  volume  on  II  Corinthians  in  the  Expositor’s 
Bible:  “Christ  is  on  His  throne  and  His  people  are  exalted  and 
victorious  in  Him.  When  we  forget  Christ’s  exaltation  in  our 
study  of  His  earthly  life — when  we  are  so  preoccupied,  it  maj’ 
even  be  so  fascinated,  with  what  He  was,  that  we  forget  what  He 
is — when,  in  other  words,  a pious  historical  imagination  takes  the 
place  of  a living  religious  faith — that  victorious  consciousness  is 
lo.st  and  in  a most  e.ssential  jioint  the  image  of  the  Lord  is  not  re- 
produced in  the  believer.  This  is  why  the  Pauline  point  of  view 
— if  indeed  it  is  to  be  called  Pauline  and  not  simply  Christian — 
is  e.s.sential.  Chri.stianity  is  a religion,  not  merely  a history, 
though  it  should  be  the  history  told  by  Matthew,  Mark  and  Luke; 
and  the  chance  of  having  the  history  itself  appreciated  for  re- 
ligion is  that  He  who  is  its  .subject  shall  be  contemplated,  not  in 
the  dim  distance  of  the  past,  but  in  the  glory  of  His  heavenly 
reign,  and  that  He  .shall  be  recognized  not  merely  as  one  who 
lived  a perfect  life  in  His  own  generation,  but  as  the  giver  of 
life  eternal  by  His  .spirit  to  all  who  turn  to  Him.  The  ('hurch 
will  always  be  justified,  while  recognizing  that  Christianitj-  is 
a historical  religion  in  giving  prominence  not  to  its  historicity, 
but  to  what  makes  it  a religion  at  all — namely,  the  ])resent  ex- 
altation of  Christ.  This  involves  everything  and  determines,  as 
St.  Paul  tells  us,  the  very  form  and  s])irit  of  her  own  life.” 

This  (piotation  was  in  our  minds  as  we  a.sked  our  friends  one 
last  (piestion.  “In  what  forms  or  in  what  modes  did  they  have 
fellowshi])  with  this  living  Christ?”  “I  love  him  .so  much,”  an- 
swerc^l  one,  “and  my  heart  is  so  loyal  to  him  that  T am  ready 
to  die  for  him.”  “Ve.s,”  we  suggested,  “but  that  is  talk  of  an 
experience  not  real  to  you.  What  is  He  to  you  in  the  ex]>erience 
that  is  actually  l eal?”  “All  I can  say,”  was  his  i-eply,  “is  that  no 
other  j)resence  is  more  distinctly  with  me.”  “I  am  .sure,”  said 
another,  “that  T often  s(h?  Him  in  my  heart.”  “As  for  me,”  said 
a third,  “surely  His  jn-esence  is  true  and  to  bring  to  Him  all  of 
life  is  an  experience  unknown  in  Bmldhism.”  “The  only  wa}’  I 
know,”  .said  the  fourth,  “is  the  way  of  fellowshij)  by  faith,  of 
life  through  death.” 

It  was  not  a great  deal  of  Christianty  that  these  men  knew, 
if  by  “great  deal”  we  have  in  mind  masses  of  facts  or  systems 
(d’  doctrine,  but  it  was  a gi-eat  deal  that  they  knew  if  by  “great 
deal”  we  have  in  mind  the  core  and  inwar(l  ju'inciple  and  .sav- 
ing grasj).  It  is  jto.ssible  that  they  might  not  have  known  as 
much  as  this.  Let  the  reader  jmlge  and  the  issues  of  life  decide. 
It  is  possible  that  they  may  have  known  much  more  and  that  we 
might  have  found  it  if  the  conference  had  not  ended  then  with 
the  coming  of  a Christian  woman  fi-om  a di.stant  village  to  bring 
a pre.sent  of  mangoes  to  the  visitors  from  afar.  She  was  a 
woman  who.se  father,  fifty  years  ago,  had  gro]>ed  his  way  from 
Huddhi.sm  toward  Cod  through  looking  at  the  wonder  of  the 
human  hand  which  Cod  had  made. 


library 

Oujrftnwala  Theological  SemLaary 


5.  TALKS  WITH  BUDDHIST  PRIESTS  IN  SIAM 


S.  S.  “C.  Lopez  Y Lopez,” 
July  23,  1915. 

If  a Buddhist,  interested  in  the  religions  of  the  world,  were 
to  visit  our  countiy  with  a desire  to  learn  what  American  Chris- 
tianity is,  how  would  we  wish  him  to  proceed?  We  would  cer- 
tainly urge  him  first  of  all  to  read  the  New  Testament.  This, 
he  would  probably  say,  he  had  already  done,  or  if  not,  that  he 
would  gladly  do  it,  and  was  happy  to  find  that  the  original,  au- 
thoritative books  of  Christianity  were  so  small  and  so  accessible. 
But  he  would  probably  add  that  he  knew  from  his  own  experience 
that  the  actual  religious  life  of  a nation  was  often  widely  at  vari- 
ance with  its  sacred  Scriptures,  and  that  one  of  the  things  in 
which  he  was  most  interested  was  the  character  and  amount  of 
this  variance,  and  what  he  would  like  most  of  all  would  be  simply 
to  wander  among  the  common  people  and  study  their  daily  life 
with  its  moral  practices  and  religious  observances.  We  should 
have  to  answer  that  his  method  of  procedure  was  just,  but  we 
should  say  that  we  would  be  sorry  to  have  our  American  Chris- 
tianity finally  judged  in  this  way,  as  many  of  our  people  were 
only  perfunctory  Christians  or  Chri.stians  not  at  all,  in  any  deep, 
per.sonal  way,  and  that  we  should  like  to  have  him  check  the 
judgments  which  he  might  gather  from  s\ich  general  observations 
by  personal  interviews  with  our  religious  leaders.  It  might  not 
be  without  misgivings  that  we  would  urge  this  course  upon  him. 
He  could  so  easily  meet  with  official  leaders  whom  we  could  not 
commend  to  him  but  whom  he  would  be  justified  in  regarding 
as  men  of  authority.  He  might  meet  them  also  at  unpropitious 
times  or  find  them  careless  or  hasty  or  siiperficial  or  incompe- 
tent. But  these  are  all  risks  which  he  and  we  would  have  to  take 
and  we  could  not  complain  of  his  forming  his  own  conclusions 
and  reporting  to  his  people  at  home  a judgment  based  on  these 
three  sources  of  infoimiatiou,  our  sacred  books,  our  common  life, 
and  our  religious  teachers. 

It  is  in  just  these  ways  that  we  have  been  seeking  to  study 
the  religious  life  of  Siam  and  the  character  of  Siamese  Buddhism, 
and  I shall  try  to  set  down  here  some  report  of  our  talks  with 
Buddhist  priests. 

One  conversation  was  with  a group  of  young  priests  in  a new, 
gaily  decorated  temple  in  the  city  of  Prae  in  northern  Siam. 
Most  of  the  temples  which  one  sees  in  Siam  are  either  very  old 
or  else,  by  reason  of  wear  or  neglect,  have  the  appearance  of  old 
age.  Hitherto  the  repair  of  temples  which  others  have  built  has 
not  been  regarded  as  a means  of  religious  merit-making  for  the 
repairer.  The  King  is  seeking,  sensibly  and  with  effect,  to  in- 

52 


troduce  a different  sentiment  and  to  persuade  men  that  the  pres- 
ervation of  the  old  temples  is  as  meritorious  as  the  erection  of 
new.  This  temple  was  either  new  or  as  good  as  new.  Elephant 
bells  hung  around  the  cornice  and  along  the  roof  ridge.  The 
pillars  and  doorways  were  glittering  with  colored  glass  and  new 
gilt.  The  great  alabaster-faced  image  of  Buddha  gazed  passively 
down  the  temple  walls,  newly  painted  with  scenes  of  Buddha’s 
earthly  life.  A dozen  jmung  prie.sts  and  some  boys  from  the 
temple  school  gathered  around  us,  and  we  asked  them  when 
Buddha  was  born  and  in  what  coiintry  he  had  lived.  O said 
they,  he  had  lived  so  long  ago  that  they  did  not  know  when  or 
where  it  was.  Could  they  tell  us  then  any  facts  about  him? 
What  had  he  done  or  said?  Bid  they  know  what  he  had  taught 
about  God?  Xo,  said  they,  they  were  sorry  they  could  not  tell. 
Was  there  then  not  something  else,  about  which  they  could  tell 
us,  that  he  had  taught  men  ? O yes,  they  said,  he  had  taught 
them  the  Siame.se  and  Lao  languages.  What  was  this  great  idol 
looking  down  upon  us?  we  asked.  It  was  the  image  of  Buddha, 
they  replied.  He  had  given  them  this  image  and  told  them  that 
it  was  a true  image  and  bidden  them  to  wor.ship  it.  Could 
Buddha  hear  and  help,  we  asked?  Yes,  he  could,  they  replied. 
Well,  then,  was  he  not  in  Nirvana,  and  in  Nirvana  is  it  not  true 
that  men  neitlier  see  nor  hear  nor  feel,  but  are  freed  from  all 
consciousness  and  action  and  desire?  Of  these  things  they  could 
not  say,  and  of  what  Nirvana  might  be  they  could  not  tell.  Well, 
tlien,  we  asked,  where  was  Buddlia?  In  heaven,  they  said.  And 
wliere  is  heaven?  Above  us,  they  answered,  pointing  upward. 
And  was  Buddlia  God?  Surely  yes,  they  declared.  And  was 
he  the  only  God?  No,  there  was  anotlier  one  who  was  to  come 
from  heaven,  too,  the  Buddha  of  mercy,  Prah  alaya  mettai. 
When  we  pressed  them  further  about  tlie  meaning  of  religion  and 
the  thought  of  God,  they  could  011I3"  answer  that  they  knew  only 
that  Buddha  was  he,  that  the  idol  was  not  he  but  only  the  image 
of  him.  It  was  a friendly  group  eager  to  hear  our  questions 
and  eaniest  in  their  answers,  but  most  of  them  were  only  boys, 
representative  of  that  great  host  of  lads  who,  after  the  ancient 
but  now  relaxing  custom  of  Siam,  were  expected  to  spend  a few 
months  at  least  in  the  priesthood  before  going  out  to  take  up 
the  responsibilities  of  men.  They  did  not  know  much  and  their 
ignorance  was  I'ejiresentative  of  the  religious  ideas  of  great 
masses  of  the  peojile.  Before  we  judge  too  harshly,  however,  it 
would  be  well  for  us  to  reflect  upon  what  a Buddhist  visitor  to 
America  might  meet  with  under  corre.sponding  circumstances 
in  our  own  land. 

I turn  from  this  to  an  experience  of  a quite  different  char- 
acter. He  was  a clever,  intelligent,  open-hearted  priest  in  the 
Pak  oi  Wat  in  Chieng  Mai.  It  was  the  fifteenth  day  of  the  wmx- 
ing  moon,  one  of  the  Buddhist  holy  days,  and  I had  gone  to  the 
wat  with  the  hope  of  attending  a Buddhist  service  with  Dr. 
Campbell  of  Chieng  Mai,  a missionary  who  knows  the  sacred 

53 


books  of  Siamese  Buddliism  and  miderstands  the  ways  to  human 
hearts,  includinj^  the  liearts  of  priests.  Entering  the  temple,  we 
found  llxat  we  had  come  upon  a .sort  of  ordination  .service.  Two 
young  men  were  passing  from  tlie  first  to  the  second  order,  from 
the  diaconate  to  the  full  priesthood,  as  it  were.  The  older  priest 
who  was  conducting  tlie  service  saw  us  as  we  stood  in  the  door- 
way and,  calling  to  ns,  cordially  invited  us  to  come  in  and  to  sit 
down  near  him.  The  two  young  priests  were  .seated  on  mats 
before  the  altar,  on  which,  raised  high,  were  three  images  of 
Buddha  draped  in  yellow  and  white  and  rexl.  Beside  each  of 
the  young  men  lay  a great  pile  of  gifts,  new  yellow  robes,  pillow'; 
with  ends  embroidered  in  silver,  white  umbrellas,  candles,  pieces 
of  colored  printed  cloth,  new  begging  bowls  with  red  and  yellow 
bands  to  hang  them  about  the  neck,  brass  basin.s,  and  nearby, 
for  each  young  priest,  a great  dinner  waiting  in  a dozen  dif- 
ferent bowls  arranged  on  a tray.  Behind  the  boys  were  mem- 
bers of  their  families,  mothers  especially,  and  other  women  kin 
for  whom  such  an  act  as  this  of  the  boys  was  the  greate.st  merit- 
making that  could  be.  These  had  their  little  bowls  of  fruit  and 
flowers  whose  heavy  fragrance  filled  the  temple.  We  hesitated  to 
intrude  on  such  a ceremony,  but  one  of  the  young  priests  picke<l 
up  a cigarette  and  lighted  it,  pleased  apparently  at  the  interrup- 
tion, and  the  older  priest  in  charge  was  so  genial  and  urgent 
that  we  came  in  and  took  our  places  beside  him.  “I  am  a 
stranger  from  abrcxad,”  1 said.  Dr.  rampbell  translating,  “may  I 
ask  whether  these  young  men  have  a great  love  in  their  hearts 
for  Buddha?”  “They  hesitate  to  reply  for  themselves.”  said  the 
older  priest,  “but  1 will  answer  for  them.  They  are  indeed  truly 
devoted  to  the  Buddha’s  religion  and  desire  to  give  their  lives  to 
it.”  “And  will  Buddha  help  them  and  be  with  them.”  I a.sked. 
“Do  they  love  him  as  their  friend  and  do  they  have  the  comfort 
of  his  comjxanionship?”  “O  no.”  was  the  reply.  “Buddha  is  gone 
to  Nirvana  and  he  cannot  hear  or  help  or  walk  with  men.  We 
have  only  what  he  was  and  what  he  taught.  It  was  for  that  rea- 
son that  he  left  this  image,  that  we  might  remember  him  and 
the  Way  which  he  found.”  “But,”  we  urged,  “is  there  no  God 
to  whom  they  can  look  for  helj)?”  “O  yes.”  said  he.  “they  pray 
toward  the  roniing  One.”  He  meant  the  next  Buddha  whose 
coming  he  believed  Buddha  to  have  foretold,  and  whom,  far  and 
wide,  the  Siame.se  Buddhists  at  least,  dimly  expect,  and  some  of 
them  not  dimly  but  earnestly.  “But  where  is  the  Coming  One?” 
we  inquired.  “Is  he  not  somewhere  now  where  he  can  be  reach- 
ed?” “No,”  said  the  priest,  “he  is  not  born  yet.”  “But  surely,” 
we  said,  “there  must  be  some  God  back  of  all  these  men  who 
were  not  and  who  then  are  born  and  who  then  die  and  are  not 
any  more.  The  world  was  here,  and  men  and  women  were  here 
before  Buddha  came.  AA’ho  made  these?”  “Yes,”  he  answered, 
“all  these  were  here  before  Buddha,  but  there  was  no  God  before 
him  nor  any  need  of  God.  People  were  all  good  then  and  needed 
no  deliverance  from  sin  and  no  revelation  of  a Way,  but  they  fell 

54 


into  evil.  Then  in  mercy,  Buddha  came  down  to  give  them  help.” 
It  was  early  morning  and  we  had  made  appointments  which  called 
us  away,  but  we  asked  our  friend  whether  sometime  during  the 
day,  the  conntrj’  people  would  not  be  coming  in  with  their  offer- 
ing.s.  Could  we  come  back  then  ? Yes,  indeed,  he  said,  by  all 
means.  Early  in  the  afternoon  he  Avonld  be  glad  to  have  us  re- 
turn. The  people  would  be  there  then. 

• 'So  early  in  the  afternoon  we  returned.  Alas,  the  temple 
doors  were  locked,  and  we  went  away  disappointed  at  our  loss 
and  also  in  the  trustworthiness  of  our  friend  of  the  morning. 
We  had  .scarcely  left  the  temjile  grounds,  however,  before  we 
saw  coming  toward  us  a proce.s.sion  of  yellow-robed  priests,  fol- 
lowed by  worshi])pers  bearing  bowls  of  lacquer  and  silverware 
filled  with  offerings.  In  the  midst  of  them  was  our  friendly 
priest.  He  greeted  us  cordially  and  told  us  that  they  were 
now  on  their  way  to  the  teiu])le  with  the  offerings.  Would  we 
not  return  with  him?  So  we  joined  the  procession  and  went 
back.  The  temjde  doors  were  unlocked  and  we  passed  in.  The 
fwo  young  jjriests  resumed  their  places  and  just  behind  them 
clean  mats  were  .spread  for  us.  Beside  us,  on  a rai.sed  platform, 
sat  the  older  priest,  talking  freely  with  us  and  explaining  all 
fhiit  was  done.  Behind  us  sat  the  other  folk  with  their  offer- 
ings, the  sweet,  heavy  odors  again  tilling  the  temj)le.  A temple 
attendant  bi’onght  the  ofl'erings  to  one  of  the  younger  ])rie.sts 
wlio  held  a great  fan  upright  befon*  liis  face  and  recited  .slowly 
the  five  commandnienf s.  Then  while  the  temj)le  attendant  laid 
the  offering  of  fruit  and  food  Indore  the  images  and  ]>rayed  for 
their  acceptance  with  many  a monotone  of  Buddhist  prayer  and, 
in  ideas  never  hsirned  from  BnddhisTu  but  caught  from  Chris- 
tian influence,  a.sked  “that  we  all  might  be  brought  to  the  heav- 
enly home  where  death  and  sorrow  may  not  come,”  our  friend 
the  priest  took  uj)  the  conversation  again.  lie  asked  what  my 
work  was.  Why  had  I come  so  far?  And  expressed  the  lio])c 
that  my  errand  might  be  i»ros]nM'ous.  I replied  that  I was 
fi-aveling  to  see  1h(‘  minds  of  men  and  was  chiefly  interested  in 
what  men  thought  about  Cod  and  the  world,  and  in  the  truth 
that  they  believed  they  had  found.  He  said  that  this  was  good, 
that  all  men  must  seek  the  tiuth  and  could  only  i-est  when  they 
thought  they  had  found  it.  I re]>lied  that  the  truth  that  1 had 
found  which  semned  the  best  of  all  truths  was  that  Cod  who 
had  made  all  the  world,  was  the  Father  of  us  men  and  loved  us 
and  would  live  with  ns.  “Even  .so,”  he  .sai<l,  “all  men  .seek  hap- 
piness. 'Simdy  in  heaven  it  will  be  found  and  beyond  heaven 
there  is  Nirvana.”  “Ve.s,”  I answered,  “but  I do  not  want  a 
Nirvana  beyond  heaven,  an  (*xtinction  beyoTid  joy.  Lives  I love 
have  gone  forward  into  those  strange  places  and  I want  to  meet 
them  and  know  them  again.”  “Oh,”  .said  he,  “I  believe  that 
even  in  Nirvana  we  shall  have  our  friends  and  know  and  be 
known.”  The  chant  <d'  the  man  who  was  jtraying  before  the 
images  ro.s<;  and  fell.  To  whom,  I asked,  was  the  maTi  praying? 

.55 


“To  Buddha,”  answered  he.  “And  is  Buddha  God?”  “Yes,” 
he  replied,  “I  think  of  him  as  God.”  “And  why  then  the  idols, 
these  three  in  yellow  and  red  and  white?”  “O,”  said  he,  “to 
f)lea.se  Buddha,  men  may  rightly  make  these  images,  one  man 
one,  and  another  another,  until  there  are  many  tokens  of  our 
love,  symibols  of  our  remembrance.”  I brought  away,  when  we 
left,  one  of  his  old  rosaries  which  he  gave  me,  and  sent  back  to 
him  some  gifts,  including  the  New  Testament,  which  he  prom- 
ised to  read,  and  which  will  confirm  to  him  that  hope  of  the 
future  life  which  he  did  not  learn  from  Buddha  but  which  glows 
irrepressibly  in  the  human  heart. 

Another  conversation  we  had  one  hot  after-noon  on  the  road 
between  Lampoon  and  Me  Tah.  We  had  stopped  to  rest  in  the 
shade  beside  a wayside  market  booth  in  the  forest.  A little  boy 
with  paralyzed  legs,  crept  on  his  hands  and  knees  from  out  a 
nearby  hut,  and  an  aged  blind  woman  followed  him  begging  alms. 
A Buddhist  priest  sitting  near  by  might  or  might  not  have  seen 
them.  He  was  from  a monastery  near  Lampang  and  had  been 
at  Lampoon  helping  at  the  funeral  service  of  a great  priest  there. 
The  number  of  priests  in  many  of  the  temples  has  fallen  off  so 
that  men  must  be  called  sometimes  from  other  cities  to  these 
services.  The  opinion  of  .such  a priest  as  this  would  be  valuable. 
I told  him  I w’as  in  doubt  as  to  the  meaning  of  Nirvana.  Did  it 
mean,  as  some  held,  complete  extinction,  or  did  it  mean  conscious 
bliss?  Which  of  these  was  the  goal  and  hope  of  Buddhism?  He 
an.swered  that  he  thought  Nirvana  would  be  a place  of  perfect,  con- 
scious happiness.  “Will  we  know  one  another  there?”  “I  do  not 
think  we  shall.”  “Is  Buddha  there?”  “Yes.”  “Where  is  Nir- 
vana?” “I  do  not  know.”  “Will  we  know  Buddha  there?”  “Yes. 
I think  we  will.”  “Who  will  attain  Nirvana?”  “Those  who 
have  obeyed  and  followed  Buddha.”  “What  will  become  of  that 
great  majority  of  men  who  never  heard  of  Buddha?”  “I  do  not 
know.”  “Well,  if  Buddhism  is  so  good  and  indispensable,  are 
Buddhists  doing  anything  to  spread  the  knowledge  of  it  through 
the  world?”  “I  do  not  know.”  “Do  you  not  think  that  if  they 
believe  in  it  they  ought  to  spread  it?”  “O,  if  any  are  trying  to 
do  so,  well  and  good,  and  if  not,  good  and  well.”  A missionary 
sitting  by  gave  some  help  to  the  old  blind  woman.  The  priest 
rose  and  went  on  his  way. 

The  Buddhist  chui'ch  in  Siam  appears  to  be  a very  loose  in- 
stitution with  nothing  either  in  its  local  temples  or  in  its 
national  system  at  all  corresponding  to  the  efficiency  and  com- 
pactness of  our  church  organization,  but  there  is  a head  or  chief 
priest  of  all  Siamese  Buddhism,  Prince  Yajiranana,  an  uncle  of 
the  King  of  Siam,  and  one  of  our  most  interesting  conversations 
was  with  him.  He  was  a small,  lithe  man  of  ascetic  appearance, 
clad  in  a simple  yellow  robe,  characteristic  of  Buddhist  priests 
in  Siam,  in  accordance  with  the  traditions  that  Buddha  chose 
this  style  of  dress  because  of  its  rude  or  despised  associations. 
The  Prince  understood  English  and  spoke  it  slowly  and  accur- 

56 


ately,  but  in  the  warmth  of  conversation  constantly  dropped  it 
for  Siamese  and  asked  to  have  most  that  was  said  in  English  in- 
terpreted. In  the  large  audience  room  of  his  palace  in  connec- 
tion with  one  of  the  great  temples  of  the  city,  was  a sort  of 
throne  pulpit  from  which  he  received  in  state,  but  he  met  us  in 
a most  friendly  and  simple  fashion  in  a small,  adjoining  library. 
Several  missionaries  were  in  the  party  and  he  knew  well  who 
we  were  and  why  we  had  come,  and  met  us  with  the  cordiality 
and  responsiveness  of  a gentle  and  truly  religious  man.  His 
spirit,  far  from  being  passive  and  inert,  was  vivacious  and  in- 
tensely alive.  AVe  told  him  that  we  were  more  deeply  interested 
in  the  religion  of  Siam  than  in  anything  else  that  we  had  seen, 
and  wondered  whether  he  could  recommend  any  book,  in  English, 
if  possible,  which  gave  a just  account  of  the  Buddhism  of  Siam. 
“I  could  name  several  books  on  the  subject,”  he  answered,  and 
then  ignoring  such  books  as  Fielding  Hall’s  “The  Soul  of  a Peo- 
ple,” and  Alabaster’s  “The  Wheel  of  the  Law,”  he  added,  “but  the 
only  one  which  I would  approve  is  Rhys  Davids’s.”  We  asked 
him  whether  Buddhism  really  tvas  one  religion  or  whether  Siam- 
e.se  Buddhism  did  not  differ  radically  from  the  Buddhism  of 
Japan  and  China,  and  also  whether,  judging  from  the  conversa- 
tions which  we  had  had  with  Siamese  prie.sts,  Siamese  Buddhism 
must  not  be  regarded  as  widely  different  also  from  the  Buddhi.sm 
of  Ceylon,  for  certainly  the  thoroughgoing  Buddhists  of  Ceylon 
regard  Xirvana  as  annihilation  or  extinction,  and  of  all  whom  we 
had  met  in  Siam,  only  one  man  could  tell  \is  of  having  ever 
heard  a Siamese  Buddhi.st  speak  of  extinction  as  the  goal  of 
being.  “Yes,”  replied  he,  “northern  and  southern  Buddhism  are 
distinctly  different,  and  beside  this  radical  difference  there  are 
man}’^  .sects  in  Buddhism  just  as  there  are  in  Prote.stantism,  but 
I do  not  think  that  these  sects  matter  much  in  either  case.  I 
can  tell  the  difference  between  Protestanti.sm  and  Roman  Cath- 
olicism, but  not  between  the  Protestant  denominations.”  We 
asked  him  whether  our  imj)ression  was  correct  that  the  Budd- 
hi.sm of  Siam  differed  from  the  Buddhism  of  Ceylon  funda- 
mentally in  its  idea  of  the  ultimate  life  of  the  soul.  Perhaps  it 
did,  he  thought.  As  for  him.self,  he  believed  in  the  tran.smigra- 
tioii  of  the  soul,  which  was  an  older  idea  than  Buddhism  and 
had  been  taken  up  by  it,  and  which  promised  the  soul  a final 
purification  and  an  eternal  conscious  happiness  after  the  long 
struggle  between  good  and  evil  had  been  wrought  out.  Some 
years  ago,  he  said.  Dr.  John  Fox,  .secretary  of  the  American 
Bible  Society,  on  his  visit  to  Siam,  had  presented  him  with  a 
Bible  and  asked  him  to  read  it,  and  told  him  that  he  would 
pray  for  him  as  he  read.  He  had  read  it  and  he  thought  the  Xew 
Testament  idea  of  eternity  was  very  much  the  same  as  the  Siam- 
e.se  Buddliist  conception  of  Nirvana.  Some  he  knew,  taught  that 
Nirvana  meant  extinction.  He  did  not  believe  this  but  thought 
that  evil  would  be  extii-jjated  and  that  good  would  abide,  and 
that  the  soul  would  come  at  last  through  all  the  wheeling  pro- 

57 


(•(‘ssos  of  its  exjterionce  to  poifecl  holiness  ami  calm.  He  had 
read  in  the  Bible  of  the  Holy  Spirit  and  Satan,  powers  of 
and  evil  that  now  work  and  \var  in  man.  These  powers  Budd- 
hism recognized,  bnt  only  as  forces,  not  as  in  any  sense  7>ersonal. 
Indeed  he  could  not  accejit  the  Bible  teaching  regarding  a f>er- 
sonal  God  and  Jesus  Christ  as  a personal  deity.  He  could  not 
embrace  any  conception  of  personal  deity.  Did  this  view,  we 
asked,  account  for  the  u.se  of  images  of  Buddha  which  might 
take  the  place  of  a personal  thought  of  God?  Images,  he  an- 
swered, were  simply  a remindei-.  They  had  been  originally  for- 
bidden ill  Buddhism  but  it  was  easy  to  explain  their  origin.  In 
his  own  case  we  might  have  noticed  in  the  adjoining  room  a 
throne  or  pulpit  from  which  he  spoke.  When  his  friends  want- 
ed him  to  come  to  some  distant  part  of  the  country,  he  found  they 
had  an  altar  ready  for  him  on  which  he  might  sit.  Even  in  his 
case  it  would  be  an  easy  thing  for  his  friends  to  take  the  next 
step  and  during  his  absence  to  put  his  image  there  as  a reminder 
of  him.  This  is  all  that  the  images  of  Buddha  were.  But,  we 
asked,  did  Buddhists  not  worship  Buddha  as  God?  No,  he  re- 
plied, certainly  they  did  not.  Buddha  was  simply  a great  teacher 
who  had  discovered  the  way  and  left  behind  the  treasure  of  his 
example  and  his  teaching.  But.  we  asked  again,  did  Buddhists 
not  have  an  idea  of  God  beyond  Buddha,  of  a supreme  personal 
ruler  of  the  universe?  No,  he  answered,  none.  The  universe  was 
not  to  be  explained  in  terms  of  creation  and  sustenance  by  a 
per.sonal  God.  The  world  and  all  things,  mountains  and  trees, 
stars  and  suns,  are  all  simply  the  effects  of  natural  cau.ses,  and 
the.se  causes  are  themselves  the  effects  of  causes  which  precede<l 
them.  Buddhism  knows  only  Buddha  and  nature,  but  it  has  no 
perfsonal  God  nor  any  idea  of  God  at  all.  There  was  no  flinch- 
ing. It  was  the  most  authoritative  voice  in  Siamese  Buddhism. 
And  it  di.sclaimed  God. 

In  the  great  throne  hall  begun  by  the  late  King  of  Siam  and 
now  nearing  comi)letion,  there  is  an  interesting  symlxdic  paint- 
ing high  up  on  the  wall  above  the  entrance  from  his  Majesty’s 
palace.  At  the  top  of  the  picture  and  painted  with  a skill  that 
makes  it  stand  out  as  though  it  were  carved  relief,  is  a great 
figure  of  Buddha.  Jiist  below  is  the  Siamese  throne  with  the 
King  .seated  upon  it  and  gathered  around  are  the  representatives 
of  the  great  religions  of  the  world.  Its  meaning  is  not  alto- 
gether clear.  The  Siamese  gentleman  who  explained  the  picture 
to  us  did  not  regard  it  as  representing  the  submi.ssion  of  all 
religious  to  Buddhism,  but  rather  as  the  friendly  assembly  of 
all  in  the  tolerant  freedom  which  has  ])revailed  in  Siam.  We 
asked  Prince  Vajiranana  what  he  thought  the  future  of  religion 
in  the  world  would  be.  Would  there  be  just  one  religion  through- 
out all  the  earth?  If  so,  would  that  religion  be  some  one  of  the 
present  religions,  or  a composite  of  them  all,  or  a new  religion? 
Or  would  each  religion  keep  in  general  its  own  present  terri- 
tory? No,  he  replied,  there  would  never  be  one.  Traditions  and 

58 


family  loyalty,  the  eonservatism  of  race  and  of  individual  con- 
viction, national  and  personal  o'bligations  would  hold  men  to 
their  own  inherited  faiths.  How,  we  mif^ht  have  asked,  but  did 
not,  under  such  a principle,  could  Buddhism  or  any  other  re- 
ligion ever  have  begun?  All  religion,  he  continued,  was  essen- 
tially the  same.  Strip  away  the  ceremonies  and  the  doctrines 
and  the  ethical  substance  which  is  left  is  the  common  law  of 
truth  and  hone.sty  and  love.  The  unification  of  mankind  in 
obedience  to  this  common  moral  law  and  in  the  bonds  of  human 
brotherhood  is  the  real  goal.  All  proselytism  is  sectarian  and 
ought  not  to  be.  But  is  tlie  spread  of  truth,  again  we  might 
have  a.sked,  proselytism?  Is  it  not  the  duty  of  those  who  know 
or  who  believe  they  know  to  share  their  knowledge?  Can  men 
who  have  God  refrain  from  offering  Him  to  men  who  have  not? 
Whatever  truth  we  have,  are  we  not  bound  both  to  hold  and  to 
I)i-opagate?  “Your  Boyal  Highne.ss,”  asked  one  of  the  inission- 
arie.s,  as  we  were  about  to  leave,  “Is  it  right  for  Buddliist  par- 
ents who  have  a Christian  son  to  try  to  force  him  into  the  Budd- 
hist priesthood,  and  ought  sucli  a son,  out  of  filial  loyalty, 
against  his  conviction.s,  to  enter  the  priesthood  to  make  merit 
for  tho.se  lie  loves?”  “No,”  replied  tlie  Prince  and  chief  priest, 
.speaking  straight  as  a man,  “no,  men  should  be  true  to  their  real 
convictions.”  And  then  he  added  kindly  to  the  missionary  who 
had  asked  the  question,  and  who  had  been  a long  time  in  Siam, 
“I  hope  that  you  will  stay  in  our  country  and  will  not  go  away.” 
The  mi.ssionary  will  stay,  and  missions  will  stay.  They  have 
a word  for  Siam  which  Buddhism  has  never  sjioken  and  can 
never  sjieak,  the  word  of  a living  God  come  close  to  humanity 
and  .saying,  “I  am  come  a light  into  the  world.  He  that  follow- 
eth  me  shall  not  walk  in  darkness  but  shall  have  the  light  of 
life.  1 am  come  that  ye  may  have  life  and  that  ye  may  have  it 
abundantly.  I go  to  prepare  a place  for  you,  and  if  1 go  I will 
come  again  and  receive  you  unto  myself,  that  where  I am  there 
ye  may  be  also.  Come  unto  me  and  be  alive  forevermore.” 

B.  E.  S. 


59 


6.  POINTS  OF  CONTACT  WITH  CHRISTIANITY  IN  THE 
HERESIES  OF  SIAMESE  BUDDHISM 


Siamese  Buddhism  is  classified  with  the  Buddhism  of  Burma 
and  Ceylon  as  Southern  Buddhism,  preserving  the  orthodox 
Buddhist  traditions,  and  quite  distinct  from  the  Northern  Budd- 
hism of  China  and  Japan,  which,  as  a whole,  and  even  more 
radically  in  some  of  the  sects  of  Buddhism  in  Japan,  has  separ- 
ated itself  in  many  fundamental  respects  from  the  doctrine  of 
Gautama.  The  assumption,  however,  that  Siamese  Buddhism  is 
faithful  to  the  primitive  idea.s,  is  unfounded.  The  moment  it  is 
examined,  or  any  of  its  responsible  interpreters  are  questioned, 
it  is  discovered  to  be  full  of  heresies.  And  it  is  of  interest  and 
significance  to  the  mi.ssionary  enterprise  to  note  that  each  of  the 
heretical  departures  of  Buddhism  in  Siam  repre.sents  a .step 
toward  religious  truth  which  Buddha  either  did  not  know  or 
denied,  and  offers  a di.stinct  point  of  contact  with  Christianity. 
Such  variations,  moreover,  have  to  do  with  the  most  central  and 
important  differences  between  the  Christian  faith  and  Buddhist 
doctrine. 

These  points  of  contact  are  well  known  to  the  mis.sionaries  in 
Siam  and  giiide  their  methods  of  approach  to  thoughtful  Budd- 
hists. The  difficulty  is  that  thoiightful  Buddhists  are  so  few  and 
that  even  those  who  are  thoughtful  are  so  ignorant  of  Buddhi.st 
history  and  teaching.  In  many  temples  the  young  priests  can 
tell  a visitor  nothing  whatever  about  Buddha,  not  one  fact  or 
tradition  about  his  earthly  life,  and  what  they  offer  as  the  teach- 
ing of  Buddhisiu  is  something  that  no  imagination  can  trace 
back  either  to  Buddha  or  to  the  early  teachers.  And  while  there 
are  multitudes  of  better  informed  Buddhists  who  do  know  the 
story  of  the  Founder’s  life,  who  have  read  some  of  the  sacred 
writings,  and  who  have  .some  ideas  of  Buddhist  philosophy,  nev- 
ertheless even  among  these  there  are  few  who  know  what  the 
original  teaching  was  or  who  realize  how  far  away  they  have 
drifted  from  it.  Their  ideas  can  be  made  points  of  contact  in 
the  presentation  of  Christianity,  but  they  have  no  realization 
that  these  ideas  represent  any  departure  from  the  traditional 
faith  in  the  direction  of  a religious  view  more  diametrically  op- 
posed to  the  Buddhist  view  than  to  any  other  in  the  world.  It 
is  easy,  accordingly,  to  overestimate  the  apologetic  value  of  these 
points  of  contact  between  Siamese  Buddhism  and  Christianity, 
as  the  small  fruitage  of  the  work  in  southern  Siam  testifies.  Such 
heretical  departures  from  error  have  not  brought  men  into  the 
truth  or  enabled  them  to  recognize  it  when  they  see  it  in  its 
fullness.  But  it  is  worth  while  to  examine  again  such  points 
of  contact  as  there  are,  as  it  would  seem  quite  clear  that  by  the 

60 


way  of  some  of  them  the  road  will  lie  over  which  the  Buddhists 
of  Siam  will  come  to  the  true  Light  toward  which  they  have  un- 
consciously been  feeling  their  path. 

1.  The  first  and  fundamental  heresy  of  Siamese  Buddhism  is 
its  disposition  to  believe  in  God.  In  the  words  of  Rhys  Davids, 
whom  the  head  of  Siamese  Buddhism  regards  as  the  most  accept- 
able and  trustworthy  western  interpreter  of  Buddhism,  and  from 
whom  the  otherwise  uncredited  quotations  in  this  discussion  are 
taken  in  order  that  the  representation  of  early  Buddhism  may 
be  one  that  Siamese  Buddhists  would  approve,  Buddha’s  re- 
ligion was  one  “which  ignores  the  existence  of  God.”  “The  orig- 
inal teaching  of  Guatama  knew  nothing  of  God  and  taught  that 
Arahants,  lioly  men,  were  better  tlian  gods.”  The  Buddhists  of 
Ceylon  wlio  do  pre.serve,  as  they  claim,  the  true  teaching  of  the 
Buddha,  have  issued  a Buddhist  Catechism  which  aims  to  set 
forth  uncomjtrornisingly  the  original  doctrine.  “Did  a god  cre- 
ator call  the  world  into  existence  by  his  will,”  the  Catechism  asks, 
and  it  answers,  “There  is  no  god  creator.  Only  the  ignorance  of 
man  has  invenled  a personal  god  creator.  The  Buddhists,  how- 
ever, absf)lutely  reject  the  belief  in  a i)ersonal  god.”  And  in  the 
supplementary  notes  the  catechism  says,  “Buddhism  does  not 
deny  gods  nor  does  it  attribute  to  them  any  special  importance. 
It  simply  does  not  need  them  either  as  a prop  to  its  ethics,  nor 
for  the  attainment  of  salvation.  Whoever  wishes  to  believe  in 
God  may  do  so,  only  he  must  not  forget  that  the  gods,  like  all 
living  beings,  are  perishable  and  subject  to  rebirth ....  and  that 
the  saint  who  has  reached  perfection  and,  above  all,  the  Buddha, 
is  far  superior  to  all  gods.”  But  the  hearts  of  the  Siamese  peo- 
ple will  not  accept  this  doctrine  in  either  its  agnostic  or  its 
atheistic,  or  its  rather  despicably  polytheistic  form.  They  insist 
on  feeling,  at  least,  the  reality  of  a great  mystery  behind  the 
world  and  with  increasing  clearness  they  have  come  to  think  of  a 
great  creator  and  benevolent  ruler  of  all  things.  For  many  j^ears 
this  faith  has  grown  in  articulateness  and  in  acceptance.  It  has 
not  extirpated  the  barren  doctrine  of  Buddha,  but  it  has  colored 
it  with  the  heart’s  irrepressible  longing. 

2.  In  its  need  of  God  the  Siamese  heart  has  either  deified 
Buddha  himself  or  conceived  of  him  as  a messenger  of  the  deity, 
or,  more  dimly,  has  insisted  on  looking  forward  to  someone  yet 
to  come  out  of  the  unseen  who  shall  satisfy  the  heart.  There 
was  nothing  in  Buddha’s  teaching  to  sanction  such  ideas'  as 
these.  “Was  Buddha  a god’s  mes.senger?”  asks  the  Buddhist 
Catechi.sm,  aTid  answei*s  unequivocally  “Xo.”  “Was  he  then 
a human  being?”  it  continues.  “Yes,  he  was  born  a human  be- 
ing.” The  earliest  documents  represent  “the  historical  Buddha 
to  have  taught  that  he  was  the  late.st  of  a series  of  seven  Budd- 
has.” The  Siamese  believe  that  he  was  the  fourth  of  five  Budd- 
has and,  unsatisfied  with  Guatama,  they  look  for  the  coming  of 
Metteyya  or  Maitreya,  who  will  bring  the  fullness  of  truth  and 
of  satisfaction  to  human  hearts.  Buddha’s  own  declaration  was 

61 


that  after  his  death  lie  would  live  only  in  the  doctrine  which  he 
left  behind  him  for  the  f^uidauce  of  his  followers.  The  Sianiesf' 
Buddhists  believe  that  he  lives  still,  and  to  the  f^reat  mass  of 
them  he  is  as  God. 

3.  As  proof  that  they  feel  after  God  it  is  stifficient  to  note 
that  the  Siamese  Buddhists  have  fallen  into  the  heresr  of  prayer 
and  as  evidence  of  their  dimly  theistic  thought  of  Buddha  it  is 
to  be  said  that  it  is  to  him,  either  the  historic  Buddha  who  was 
and  who  still  lives  in  their  view,  or  to  the  unseen  Buddha  who 
is  to  come,  that  they  pray.  Alone  in  the  temples  before  the  great 
images  for  the  things  that  they  want  in  their  business,  on  their 
farms,  or  in  their  homes,  and  together  in  great  companies  pray- 
ing unitedly  or  through  the  voice  of  the  priest,  the  Siamese  peo- 
ple seek  to  supplicate  or  commune  with  God.  But  this  is  the 
repudiation  of  the  doctrine  of  Buddha.  “Buddhism  does  not 
acknowledge  the  efficacy  of  prayers.  ..  .The  original  teaching  of 
Guatama  acknowletlged  no  form  of  prayer,”  .says  Bhys  Davids. 
And  the  Buddhist  Catechism  declares,  “Prayer  and  .sacrifice  do 
not  exist  in  the  Buddhist  religion.” 

4.  In  the  fourth  place  Siamese  Buddhi.san  retains  a great 
mass  of  the  animistic  ideas  and  practices  which  marked  the  re- 
ligion of  the  people  before  they  took  up  Buddhism.  In  this  they 
have  exemplified  the  statement  which  Khys  Davids  makes  broad- 
h*  of  Buddhi.sm  everywhere:  “Buddhism  has  never  been  the  only 
belief  of  the  ma.ss  of  its  adherents  who  have  always  also  re- 
vered the  powers  of  nature  under  the  veil  of  astrology  or  devil 

worship,  or  witchcraft,  or  the  belief  in  pantras  and  charms 

Not  one  of  the  500,000.000  who  offer  flowers  now  and  then  on 
Buddhist  shrine.s,  who  are  more  or  less  moulded  by  Buddhist 
teaching,  is  only  or  altogether  a Buddhist.”  This  intermixture 
of  animi.sni  is  especially  noticeable  in  northern  Siam  among  the 
Lao  people,  whose  real  religion  has  been  and  is  the  wor.ship  and 
propitiation  of  spirits,  but  throughout  southern  Siam  also  the 
little  .spirit  shrines  are  erected  outside  the  houses  or  the  spirit 
shelf  put  up  within,  and  men  whom  the  barrenness  of  Buddhi.sm 
with  its  introversion  of  all  the  outward  longings  of  the  soul 
could  not  satisfy,  have  held  fast  to  the  primitive  animistic  su- 
perstition as  providing  at  least  some  less  mocking  spiritual 
nourishment. 

5.  Not  so  much  Siamese  Buddhism  as  the  human  heart  in 
Siam  has  turned  utterly  away  from  Buddha’s  injunction  to  extir- 
])ate  all  lougiug  for  happiness.  This  was  the  commandment  <»f 
primitive  Buddhism.  The  follower  of  Buddha  was  to  think  “of 
all  things  that  worldly  meu  hold  good  or  bad.  power  and  oppres- 
sion, love  and  hate,  riches  and  want,  fame  and  contempt,  youth 
and  beauty,  decrepitude  and  disease,  and  regard  them  all  with 
fixed  indifference,  with  utter  calmness  and  .serenity  of  mind.” 
The  mental  state  that  was  to  be  .sought  was  to  be  “without  .sor- 
row and  without  joy.  by  the  destruction  of  previous  gladness 
and  gi-ief.  by  the  rejection  of  joy.  and  the  rejection  of  sorrow." 

62 


Every  desire,  wlietlier  for  existence  or  annihilation,  for  happiness 
or  joy,  according  to  the  Buddhist  Catechism,  “must  he  conquered, 
jfot  rid  of,  relinquished,  harbored  no  longer.”  Such  a propo- 
sition to  the  human  sj)irit  is  of  course  both  an  absurdity  and  an 
impossibility.  Buddha’s  whole  life  was  a seeking.  The  ver^" 
terms  in  which  Buddhism  tries  to  state  itself  are  morally  and 
intellectually  .self-contradictory.  The  only  possible  result  of 
trying  to  comprehend  them  and  live  by  them  is  either  intellec- 
tual anarchy  or  the  philosophy  of  delusion  in  which  the  mind’s 
only  relief  is  a state  of  anto-anaesthetization.  Or  else  the  hu- 
man .spirit  refusing  to  be  befuddled  simi)ly  goes  its  natural  and 
inevitable  way,  seeking  for  the  juire  joys  for  which  it  knows  that 
it  was  made  and  which  it  knows  that  it  was  made  to  seek,  and 
to  seek  coniscionsly  and  with  all  its  will.  This  is  what  the  mind 
and  heart  of  Siam  have  done.  They  have  not  escaped  the  nar- 
cotic, tor])orizing  inlluence  of  Buddhism,  but  neither  have  they 
surrendered  the  desire  for  a real  and  active  happiness  and  sunk 
in  Buddhi.sm’s  morass. 

(!.  It  is  not  a point  of  contact  with  Christianity  which  the 
heresy  of  merit-making  through  vicaiious  sacritice  and  .service 
presents,  and  yet  there  are  ideas  involved  in  this  thought  as  it 
is  accej)ted  today  in  Siam  which  are  at  variance  with  primitive 
Buddhism,  and  which  oj)en  the  mind  to  larger  and  freer  con- 
ceptions. Buddha  “constantly  maintained  that  there  was  no 
merit  in  outward  acts  of  .self-denial  and  penance”  ])erformed 
for  one’s  self  or  in  behalf  of  othens.  “Cannot  the  Binblha  by  his 
own  merit  absolve  ns  from  the  consequences  of  our  guilt?”  the 
Buddhist  Catechism  asks.  “No,’’  it  answers,  “nobody  can  be 
saved  by  another.  No  god  and  no  .saint,  so  teach  the  holy  books, 
can  ])rotect  one  from  the  effects  of  one’s  evil  deed.s.  Every  one 
must  work  out  his  own  emancii)ation.  The  Buddha  has  only 
shown  the  way  for  everyone  to  become  his  own  savior.”  Guilt 
and  sutfering,  merit  and  reward,  the  catechism  teaches,  are  al- 
ways j)urely  individiial  and  l)alance  each  other.  There  are  con- 
trary ideas  in  the  mind  of  Siam.  Tlie  son  enters  the  priesthood 
to  make  merit  for  his  ]>arents.  The  vicarious  ])rinciple  receives 
no  such  rejection  as  it  has  met  with  in  orthodox  Buddhism. 

7.  The  doctrine  of  ti-ansniigration  is  not  the  living  and  ef- 
ficient i<lea  in  Siam  that  if  was  in  primitive*  Buddhism  and  is 
still  in  ortliod(»x  Buddhist  jehilosojdiy.  To  say  that  tlie  concep- 
tion is  not  wid(‘spr(*ad  and  |»owerfnl  would  be  a misfjike.  It  is 
a comfoil  t(»  fall  back  on  it  as  a ]»ossible  ex])lanalion  of  many 
intellectual  and  moral  jtroblems.  But  as  a working  truth  in 
a personal  life  it  is  utterly  destitute  of  comfort,  and  men  who 
live  in  a sjeace  ami  time  world  and  who  have  to  do  all  their 
thinking  in  its  terms  are  unwilling  to  have  all  their  most  vital 
interests  toywl  with  by  a docti-ine  which  attempts  to  solve  the 
general  jtroblem  of  sutfering  but  is  usele.ss  t(»  the  man  who  suf- 
fers and  woi's(*  than  useless  to  the  man  who  watches  the  sutfei-- 
ings  of  those  he  loves.  Bec-ause  the  Siamese  have  human  hearts 


they  feel  this,  and  their  feelings  are  more  effective  than  their 
speculative  philosophy  in  shaping  their  lives. 

8.  Primitive  Buddhism,  far  from  being  the  simple,  happy 
life  which  early  Christianity  was,  had  many  martinet,  formal- 
istic elements.  Its  precepts  and  counsels  were  marked  by  a 
numeralistic  precisionalism  and  it  developed  a body  of  rites 
and  forms  which  led  later  to  a dispute  as  to  whether  these  were 
original  or  imitated  from  Romanism.  The  Pitakas  described 
an  elaborate  initiatory  service  for  admission  to  the  Sangha,  or 
priesthood.  The  monks  were  to  sit  in  a certain  order,  the  can- 
didate was  to  appear  with  a certain  equipment,  perform  certain 
specified  acts  and  ask  three  times  specified  questions.  The  whole 
ceremony  was  enjoined  in  detail.  And  not  only  with  the  mem- 
bers of  the  Sangha,  but  also  to  lay  followers  religious  rites  are 
important  and  indispensable,  as  the  Buddhist  Catechism  says, 
“to  remind  him  of  the  true  significance  of  life,  to  divert  his 
mind  from  the  temptations  of  the  world,  and  to  con.stantly  set 
before  him  the  highest  goal.”  Let  any  one  watch  an  ordination 
ceremony  in  Siam  or  frequent  the  services  in  the  temples,  or 
study  the  proceedings  of  individuals,  and  he  will  see  how  pro- 
miscuously and  lightly  accurate  forms  and  rituals  affect  re- 
ligioTis  life  in  Siam. 

9.  The  strongest  movement  in  Siam  today  is  the  effort  to 
produce  a sense  of  nationality,  of  conscious  political  individual- 
ity in  the  state.  Siam  greatly  needs  the  development  of  such 
a consciousness.  As  has  been  pointed  out  elsewhere,  the  King 
is  seeking  with  much  sagacity  to  produce  it  and  is  making  use 
of  Buddhism  as  a national  religion  as  one  of  his  agencies  of 
nationalistic  education.  Biit  Buddhism  held  that  “such  states 
of  mind  as  co-exist  with  a consciousness  of  individuality,  with 
a sense  of  separate  existence,  are  states  of  suffering  and  .sor- 
row.” It  is  the  will  to  live  and  to  serve,  to  fulfil  and  to  realize 
one’s  life  which  the  Buddhist  Catechism  decries  as  the  chief 
curse,  the  source  of  all  .sorrow.  Siam  is  seeking  to  develop  its 
resources,  to  increase  its  wealth,  to  enlarge  its  prosperity,  to 
advance  the  happine.ss  and  well  being  and  joy  of  its  people,  but 
the  Buddhist  Catechism  says  that  these  are  the  very  things  from 
which  Buddhism  seeks  to  free  us.  “He  who  considers  the  aban- 
donment of  earthly  pleasures  and  enjojunents  as  a painful  re- 
nunciation.” it  says,  “is  still  far  from  true  wisdom.  But  he 
who  views  this  abandonment  as  a deliverance  from  worthless, 
vain  and  troublesome  things,  from  oppressive  fetters,  looks  upon 
it  from  the  right  point  of  view.” 

10.  Lastly,  the  people  of  Siam  through  and  in  spite  of  their 
Buddhism  look  forward  longingly  to  a future  of  eternal,  con- 
scious, per.sonal  bliss.  Orthodox  Buddhism  “denies  the  existence 
of  the  soul,”  and  there  is  doubt  as  to  just  what  Buddha  thought 
was  actually  to  be  the  end  of  the  thing  that  we  call  soul,  and 
whose  existence  Buddhism  denies,  but  with  which,  whatever  it 
is  to  be  called,  religion  has  to  do.  Childers  was  absolutely  sure 

64 


that  Budclliisni’s  ultimate  goal  for  the  soul  was  complete  ex- 
tinction. “The  word  Niiwana,”  he  said,  in  his  Pali  dictionary, 
“is  used  to  de.signate  two  different  things,  the  state  of  blissful 
satisfaction  called  Arhatship,  and  the  annihilation  of  existence 
in  which  Arhatship  ends. . . .there  is  no  annihilation  without  Ar- 
hatship and  no  Arhatship  that  does  not  end  in  annihilation .... 
Nirvana  is  the  annihilation  of  every  conceivable  attribute  of 
being.”  “They  who  by  steadfast  mind,”  says  the  Katana  Sutta, 
“have  become  exempt  from  evil  desire,  and  well  trained  in  the 
teachings  of  Guatama ; they,  having  obtained  the  fruit  of  the 
fourth  Path,  and  immersed  themselves  in  that  ambrosia,  have 
received  without  price,  and  are  in  the  enjoyment  of  Nirvana. 
Their  old  karma  is  exhausted,  no  new  karma  is  being  produced; 
their  hearts  are  free  from  the  longing  after  future  life;  the 
cause  of  their  exi.stence  being  destroyed,  and  no  new  yearnings 
springing  up  within  them,  they,  the  wise,  are  extinguished  like 
this  lamp.”  Khys  Davids  cannot  bring  himself  to  think  of  the 
goal  of  Buddhism  as  annihilation.  He  regards  it  as  “the  ex- 
tinction of  that  .sinful  grasping  condition  of  mind  and  heart, 
which  would  otherwi.se,  according  to  the  great  mystery  of  Karma, 
be  tfie  cause  of  renewed  individual  existence.”  And  this  is  what 
the  Buddhist  Catechism  calls  it, — “A  state  of  mind  and  heart 
in  which  all  desire  for  life  or  annihilation,  all  egotistic  craving 
has  become  extinct  and  with  it  every  passion,  every  grasping, 
desire,  every  fear,  all  ill  will,  and  all  sorrow.”  The  catechi.sm 
recognizes  the  dilliculty  of  a definition,  and  adds,  “Only  one  who 
lias  himself  experienced  it  knows  what  Nirvana  is,  for  how  can 
that  be  called  a state  of  mind  and  heart  which  has  an  existence 
after  the  mind  and  heart  have  been  extinguished?”  In  a note 
the  catechism  faces  this  dilliculty,  “Nirvana  literally  translated,” 
it  .says,  “means,  to  be  extinguished  for  want  of  fuel.  From  this 
the  inference  has  been  drawn  by  some  that  Nirvana  signifies 
nothingness.  This  is  an  erroneous  opinion;  on  the  contrary. 
Nirvana  is  a state  of  the  highest  spiritualization,  of  which  in- 
deed no  one  who  is  still  fettered  by  earthly  ties  can  have  an 
adequate  conception.  What  is  it  then  that  is  extinguished  or 
blown  out  in  Nirvana?  Extinguished  is  the  will-to-live,  the 
craving  for  existence  and  enjoyment  in  this  or  another  world; 
extinguished  is  the  delusion  that  material  possessions  have  any 
intrinsic  or  lasting  value.  Blown  out  is  the  flame  of  .semsuality 
and  desire,  forever  blown  out  the  flickering  will-o’-the-wisp  of 
the  ‘ego’  or  ‘I’.”  According  to  Buddhism  there  never  was  a 
soul  tliat  craved,  and  now  in  Nirvana  the  craving  that  was  with- 
out a soul  is  also  gone.  If  there  is  anything  in  Nirvana  to  be 
experienced,  what  is  there  to  experience  it?  Indeed  the  cate- 
chism frankly  adds  that  the  ulterior  Niiwana,  “in  the  sense  of 
other  religions  and  of  scientific  materialism,  is  indeed  total 
annihilation,  complete  dissolution  of  the  individuality,  for  noth- 
ing remains  in  Parinirvana  which  in  any  way  corre.sponds  to 
the  human  conception  of  existence.” 

65 


3 — Report  of  Deputation. 


But  as  all  this  is  supposed  to  be  addressed  to  human  beings, 
and  to  have  to  do  with  their  interests,  and  as  all  that  it  ftroposes 
to  human  beings  is  their  utter  extirpation,  they  have  never  been 
willing,  and  they  never  will  be  willing  to  live  by  it.  Either  Nir- 
vana becomes  an  utter  unreality  to  them,  or  it  dissolves  into 
the  hope  of  a conscious  personal  existence  in  heaven.  With  one 
or  two  exceptions  every  Buddhist  with  whom  we  talked  in  Siam 
said  that  his  idea  of  Nirvana  was  a state  of  the  highe.st  possible 
consciou.s,  per.sonal  bliss,  and  the  chief  priest  himself,  as  I have 
reported  elsewhere,  told  us  that  in  his  view  Nirvana  correspond- 
ed to  the  New  Testament  idea  of  a perfect  and  eternal  heavenly 
life. 

In  other  words.  Buddhism  has  become  in  Siam  not  a mere 
personal  moralism,  not  a negative  atheistic  philosophy  ending 
in  a mist  that  cannot  be  penetrated,  and  of  which  nothing  in- 
telligible can  be  said,  but  a religion  of  hunger  and  search,  not 
eager,  but  feeling  after  the  very  light  and  joy  which  Christ  came 
to  bring  in  their  abundant  fullness  to  every  man. 

R.  E.  S. 


66 


7.  LETTER  ADDRESSED  TO  THE  TWO  MISSIONS 

IN  SIAM 


S.  S.  “C.  Lopez  V Lopez,” 
July  22,  1915. 

To  the  Tivo  Missions  in  Siam : — 

Dear  Friends: — We  are  safely  on  our  way  from  Siam  to  the 
IMiilippines,  having  come  down  from  Bangkok  to  Singapore  on 
a most  comfortable  new  ship,  and  having  caught,  with  only  one 
dav’s  delay  in  Singapoi*e,  the  Spanish  Mail  boat,  which  if  not 
as  comfortable  as  the  boat  from  Bangkok,  is  comfortable  enough, 
and  has  tlie  advantage  of  saving  us  a week’s  time  by  taking  us 
straight  to  Iloilo.  AVe  look  back  with  the  greatest  happiness 
and  gratitude  to  our  visit  to  Siam.  AA’e  wi.sh  to  thank  again  all 
the  friends  who  sjiared  no  strength  or  time  to  make  our  visit 
pleasant  and  profitable.  The  memories  of  our  fellowship  with 
you  in  the  liospitality  of  your  homes,  in  tlie  various  conferences, 
and  traveling  from  station  to  station,  will  never  fade  away. 

Al’e  promised  to  send  back,  as  soon  as  jiossible,  a letter  to  the 
missions  suggesting  for  your  consideration  some  of  the  matters 
which  had  pressed  themselves  ujion  us  during  this  visit,  in  order 
that  these  might  have  consideration  at  the  meetings  of  the 
mi.ssions  this  Fall,  in  as  much  as  we  shall  not  get  back  to  New 
York  until  the  end  of  November,  and  any  report  that  we  may 
make  to  the  Board  could  not  be  sent  to  the  missions  in  time  for 
their  annual  meeting.s. 

(I.)  The  first  cpiestion  in  our  minds  is  whether  the  work  of 
the  missions  would  not  be  greatly  strengthened  by  the  adoption 
and  the  steadfast  and  continuous  jmrsuit  of  unified  mission 
policies.  The  mi.ssions  are,  of  course,  doing  this  in  some  meas- 
ure. We  need  not  enumerate  the  ways  in  which  they  are  al- 
ready doing  so,  but  in  some  things,  divergent  and  even  contra- 
dictory policies  are  being  jmi'sued  by  difi'erent  stations  or  dif- 
ferent individuals.  Sometimes  these  jiolicies  ai-e  not  thought 
out  but  are  only  jiractices  u.sed  in  one  situation  and  likely  to 
be  changed  in  another.  There  is  need  of  clearer  and  more  rigid 
mission  rules  for  the  purjiose  of  restricting  mistakes,  e.  g.,  ex- 
penditures beyond  appropriations,  unauthorized  ju-operty  plans, 
the  injudicious  admission  of  church  members  or  of  those  semi- 
church  members,  whom  some,  but  not  all,  admit  to  baptism  but 
not  to  the  Lord’s  Supper,  the  unwise  use  of  money  resulting  in 
the  unwillingness  of  men  to  do  evangelistic  work  unless  paid 
for  it.  On  the  other  hand  there  is  need  of  firmer  mission  policy, 
not  of  a negative  and  prohibitory  character,  but  in  the  interek 
of  aggres.sion,  of  constructive  program  and  accomplishment,  pro- 

67 


vidiiig  for  the  nniforni  examination  and  instruction  of  inquir- 
ers, the  systematic  education  of  church  members,  the  comptrehen- 
sive  and  unintermitted  prosecution  of  itineration,  and  especially 
secTiring  both  the  adoption  and  the  actual  prosecution  of  a 
definite  f)rogram  of  ev’^angelization  in  each  station  center  and 
its  outlying  field,  and  most  of  all  in  the  city  of  Bangkok.  It 
is  true  that  one  or  both  of  the  mis.sions  may  have  legislation 
already  covering  .some  of  these  ]>oints,  but  it  is  not  being  obeyed. 
Individuals  have  sometimes  been  given  a free  hand  in  quite 
throwing  overboard  the  adopted  policy  of  the  mi.ssion.  Our 
conviction  is  that  if  a rule  is  a good  rule  it  ought  to  be  ol>eye<l 
by  everybody.  If  it  is  a bad  rule  it  ought  to  be  abrogated.  A 
conr.se  which  some  are  to  follow  and  others  are  not  to  follow, 
should  not  be  made  a rule.  A principle  of  action  should  be 
found  which  is  valid  for  everybody,  and  evei’A-'body  should  be  ex- 
]>ected  to  conform  to  it.  'We  would  lay  emphasis  also  upon  the 
necessity  of  following  out  consecutively  and  unintennittedly  wise 
policies  when  adopted.  Newcomers  should  not  be  allowed  to 
follow  their  own  way  or  go  adrift,  but  should  take  up  and  cari;v 
forward  the  mission’s  plan.  All  this  means  that  there  must  be 
a great  deal  more  unity  of  counsel,  constant  conference  over 
plans  and  absolute  mutual  confidence.  Our  first  prayer  is  that 
each  mi.ssion  may  be  melted  into  such  a unity  of  purpose  and 
policy  and  energy*  as  this  sugge.stion  implies. 

fll.l  In  .several  places  it  seemed  to  us  that  the  life  of  the 
churches  was  being  cared  for  in  a truly  efficient  and  satisfactory 
way,  but  from  what  we  saw  and  heai’d  in  the  two  mis.sions,  we 
would  rai.se  a question  whether  the  need  of  a clear  and  tena- 
cious policy  is  not  specially  urgent  in  the  training,  development, 
and  use  of  the  churcli.  In  some  places  the  church  is  receiving  no 
education  except  in  the  Sunday-school  ("and  there  are  no  Sunday 
school  helps  in  Siame.se).  and  in  one  Sunday  preaching  service. 
In  most  churches  there  are  no  prayer  meetings,  no  classes  for 
Bible  study  or  for  training  in  Christian  doctrine  or  Christian 
work,  and  the  pastoral  work  and  the  instruction  of  the  people 
in  the  homes  is  left  to  native  elders.  There  are  almost  no  or- 
ganizations of  and  for  the  young  people.  In  our  last  conference 
in  Bangkok,  Kru  Yuan  gave  a list,  sadly  extended,  of  the  men 
and  women  who  had  once  belonged  to  the  church  in  Bangkok 
and  had  fallen  away.  In  almost  every  station  we  were  told  of 
the  loss  of  the  young.  May  these  losses  not  be  in  large  measure 
due  to  the  lack  of  the  influences  in  our  churches  which  train  and 
use  and  hold  the  life  of  the  church?  Are  we  making  use  enough 
of  the  New  Testament  and  especially  of  the  Gospels  in  our  re- 
ligious teaching  both  in  the  church  and  in  our  schools?  Could 
not  some  of  the  Old  Testament  teaching  and  litei’ature  be  wisely 
displaced  by  what  is  more  distinctively  evangelical?  If  we  were 
to  be  asked  what  is  the  greatest  need  in  Siam,  I think  we  should 
have  to  answer  that  it  was  the  training  and  use  of  the  church. 

(III.)  Are  we  not  in  some  mattei“s  leaving  responsibility  too 

68 


much  to  native  workers,  and  in  other  matters  not  enough?  In 
some  cases  the  determination  of  the  fitness  of  inquirers  for  ad- 
mission to  the  church  and  the  work  of  instructing  and  training 
them  after  they  have  been  admitted  have  been  left  wholly  or  al- 
most wholly  to  native  elders  or  evangelists.  Is  there  not  some- 
thing incongruous  in  trusting  them  with  responsibility  for  these 
things  which  more  vitally  alfect  the  life  of  the  church  than  any- 
thing else  while  we  regard  them  as  unqualified  for  the  admin- 
istration of  the  Lord’s  Supper?  Is  not  the  mere  administration 
of  the  rite  of  far  less  consequence  than  the  preparation  of  men 
to  receive  it?  And  if  men  are  qualified  to  discharge  the  most 
important  functions  of  the  pastoral  office  which  we  are  actually 
laying  on  some  of  the  native  elders  and  evangelists,  how  can  we 
say  that  they  are  not  qualified  for  its  form?  The  experiment  of 
twenty  years  ago  in  Chieng  Mai  in  the  ordination  and  installa- 
tion of  native  pastors  which  was  cited  to  us  as  a conclusive  argu- 
ment against  such  a course,  we  found  to  prove  quite  the  opposite. 
The  error  evidently  was  not  in  laying  responsibility  upon  them, 
but  in  supposing  that  giving  them  more  responsibility  relieved 
us.  To  ordain  and  install  native  pastors,  however,  means  that 
back  of  them  we  work  .still,  lielping  ami  supporting,  and  using 
tlie  very  responsibility  which  has  been  given  as  an  agency  of 
education  in  indejtendence  and  power.  We  would  raise  the  ques- 
tion whether  at  A'akon  and  Lakon  and  Prae,  just  as  is  now  pro- 
I)o.sed  at  Wang  Lang,  native  pastors  should  not  be  in.stalled  and 
be  worked  with  and  backed  up  as  it  is  evident  some  of  the  men 
ordained  twenty  years  ago  in  Chieng  Mai  were  not.  AVe  would 
urge  also  that  in  accordance  with  the  Alaiiual,  there  .should  be 
conference  with  the  rej)re.sentatives  of  the  native  church  not  only 
in  s])ending  the  money  appropriated  from  America,  which  is  easy, 
but  in  framing  the  estimates  and  determining  how  much  is  to  be 
asked  from  America  and  how  much  is  to  be  provided  by  the 
native  church.  We  would  urge  further  in  every  station  the 
taking  of  the  elders  and  other  native  leaders  into  fulle.st  con- 
ference over  ])lans  for  all  the  work  in  the  community.  Such  con- 
ferences should  be  hehl  with  regularity  and  should  be  dignified 
with  resj)onsibility  and  exj)ectation.  We  would  urge  also  that 
evangelists  should  be  employed  wherever  possible,  not  by  the 
mission  or  the  .station,  but  by  the  Presbytery  and  the  local  church. 
These  should  be  in  most  cases  the  responsible  paidy  to  make  the 
.selection,  to  provide  the  support,  perhaps  with  mi.ssion  aid,  and 
to  receive  and  i)ass  ui)on  re])orts. 

(IV.)  How  can  we  secure  more  sustained  and  driving  evan- 
gelistic energy- ? In  some  stations  we  have  it,  but  in  others  we 
do  not.  Taking  the  two  mi.s.sions  together,  it  is  roughly  true 
that  one  third  of  the  men  are  in  medical  work,  one  third  in  edu- 
cational work,  and  one  third  in  the  directly  evangelistic  work. 
This  last  third  has  to  bear  almost  all  the  responsibility  for 
evangelistic  work  in  the  .stations  and  for  j)ractically  all  the  itin- 
eration. We  certainly  do  not  need  fewer  men  in  any  other  form 

G9 


of  work,  but  we  do  need  an  immense  strengthening  of  the  dis- 
tinctively evajigelistic  force.  And  can  we  not  find  .some  way  of 
starting  and  maintaining  a greater  evangelistic  momentum  even 
in  our  present  work?  Can  we  not  increase  the  volume  of  itiner- 
ating work  and  make  it  more  con.'<ecutive  and  continuous?  Can 
we  not  communicate  more  of  an  eagerness  for  .such  work  to  the 
native  Christians,  the  common  men  and  women  in  the  churches 
as  well  as  the  elders  and  evangelists?  There  are  some  who  have 
lost  heart,  some  who  have  never  had  any  heart  to  lose,  among 
our  elders  and  teachers.  But  there  are  others  in  whose  heart 
the  glow  has  once  been  or  is  now  waiting  to  be  fanned  into  fire. 
Are  we  meeting  enough  with  these  men  in  an  atmosphere  of  love 
and  common  responsibility  and  definite  attempts  at  planning  and 
carrying  through  common  evangelistic  achievements?  Ought  we 
not  to  do  everywhere  throughout  the  field  what  is  being  done  so 
admirably  in  some  j»laces,  namely,  to  cultivate  to  the  full  our 
contacts  with  ju-iests  and  officials,  using  these  contacts  not  for 
mere  social  j)urj)Oses,  but  for  evangelistic  ends?  And  can  we 
not  guide  the  native  (Miristian.s,  specially  tho.se  who  have  been 
in  the  priesthotxl  or  who  have  contacts  with  the  official  classes, 
to  use  these  and  to  stiengthen  Ixtth  the  church  and  themselves  in 
using  them  in  the  effort  to  win  men  to  ('hrist?  And,  I would  add, 
we  were  not  convinced,  and  we  found  many  meml>ei*s  of  the  two 
missions  who  were  not  convinced,  that  Siam  is  ditferent  from 
other  countries  in  the  matter  of  the  i»ossibilities  and  the  fniit- 
fulness  of  direct  evangelistic  work  by  women  for  women.  Can 
not  more  such  work  be  done  both  by  native  Bible  women  and 
by  the  married  and  .single  women  of  the  missions? 

t \'.)  Begarding  our  educational  work,  these  are  some  of  the 
qiiestions  we  would  suggest  for  the  further  study  of  the  missions; 
Can  we  not  do  more  to  follow  uj)  those  who  have  gone  out  from 
the  schools,  both  ('hristians  ami  non-Christian.s,  saving  the  for- 
mer to  the  .service  of  the  Church,  and  retaining  our  hold  upon 
the  latter  in  the  hope  that  they  may  be  won?  Can  we  improve 
still  further  the  quality  of  our  work  by  training  our  teachers, 
by  using  more  fully  the  teachers’  institute  idea  so  well  used  in 
Chieug  Mai  on  several  occasions?  Can  we  not  strive  more  di- 
rectly and  strenuously  for  the  conver.sion  of  jiupils,  sj>ecially  the 
older  ones,  and  to  this  end  ought  we  not  to  make  it  perfectly 
clear  to  all  parents  who  leave  non-Christian  children  with  us, 
that  we  intend  to  win  them  to  Christ  if  Ave  can,  and  that  they 
must  face  that  possibility?  Can  we  do  more  in  picking  out  and 
directly  influencing  the  young  men  and  women  who  ought  to 
give  themselves  to  the  work  as  Christian  preachers  or  teachers? 
Can  we  establish  more  day  schools  in  the  villages,  wherever  pos- 
sible, under  the  care  of  the  local  congregations  and  locally  sup- 
ported ? 

(VI.)  At  the  same  time  ought  we  not  emiAliatically  to  reject 
the  idea  of  self-support  as  the  sovereign  principle?  The  mis- 
sionary character  of  the  work,  its  adaptation  to  accomplish  mis- 

70 


sionary  results,  ought  to  be  the  dominating  principle.  Un- 
domhtedly  we  should  secure  the  largest  measure  of  self-support 
attainable,  in  consistency  with  the  missionary  principle  of  the 
work,  but  we  ought  never  to  compromise  or  qualify  the  mission- 
ary principle  in  any  way  whatever  for  the  sake  of  self-support. 
We  hold  this  conviction  with  reference  to  every  department  of 
the  work.  If  its  application  to  what  we  are  doing,  necessitates 
radical  changes,  we  must  make  them.  If,  however,  any  part  of 
the  work  can  be  made  self-supporting  without  any  such  effect 
it  should  unquestionably  he  done. 

(VII.)  Few  things  emerged  more  clearly  in  the  conferences 
ill  the  North,  than  the  loss  which  the  work  had  suffered  in  the 
discontinuity  of  the  plans  and  personnel  of  some  of  the  stations. 
'Some  men  had  been  moved  about  to  serve  in  three  or  four  dif- 
ferent stations,  losing  each  time  the  influences  and  acquaintances 
which  they  had  gained  in  the  old  station.  If  the  missions  can- 
not be  adequately  staffed  to  maintain  their  present  fields  with- 
out this  constant  change  and  disastrous  loss,  it  seems  to  us  we 
ought  to  face  the  question  of  reducing  the  number  of  stations 
so  that  there  can  be  continuity  of  service  and  of  plan. 

(VIII.)  It  is  evident  that  the  work  is  suffering  in  some  places 
through  the  failure  of  men  and  women  to  acquire  a real  mastery 
of  the  language.  In  notliing  does  the  Board  desire  the  missions 
to  adopt  a stronger  course  than  in  the  constraint  they  lay  upon 
all  their  members  to  gain  an  accurate  and  effective  knowledge  of 
the  language.  It  has  been  a great  joj^  to  be  with  many  who  had 
such  a knowledge,  hut  there  are  others  who  are  unable  to 
share  in  the  evangelistic  work,  although  they  have  time  and 
strength  that  ought  to  Ik;  .so  used  because  they  have  not  acquired 
the  vernacular.  The  missions  have  good  rules  on  the  subject, 
will  you  not  see  that  these  rules  are  more  stringently  enforced, 
and  not  by  re(juirement  only,  but  also  by  encouragement  and 
well-directed  per.sonal  help?  Will  you  not  do  whatever  more 
can  be  done  to  make  sure  that  all,  including  married  women, 
acquire  a good  working  knowledge  of  the  language? 

(IX.)  It  is  evident  that  it  is  only  a question  of  time,  and  not 
a long  time,  before  the  conditions  in  north  and  south  Siam  will 
be  so  much  alike,  and  their  problems  .so  identified,  and  the  means 
of  conununication  so  easy,  that  the  two  missions  will  be  drawn 
to  unite  as  the  missions  in  dai)an  and  Shantung  have  united,  and 
as  the  missions  in  Persia  and  Brazil  will  undoubtedly  unite  as 
soon  as  they  are  able  to  do  so.  In  due  time  Siamese  will  be  the 
language  of  the  whole  country,  and  the  only  printed  literature 
will  be  in  Siame.se.  This  may  not  be  for  .some  years,  but  it  will 
depend  upon  the  development  of  the  school  .system  of  the  gov- 
ernment which  will  s])read  Siamese  just  as  our  school  system 
has  .spread  English  in  the  Bhilippine.s,  and  as  the  Japanese  has 
spread  their  language  in  Korea.  We  should  do  our  missionary 
thinking  and  planning,  accordingly,  in  terms  of  this  certain 
destiny,  aud  the  statesmanship  and  largemindedness  of  the  two 

71 


missions  will  be  tested  by  this  necessity.  The  problems  of  Chris- 
tian literature  aiul  of  field  occupation,  accordingly,  will  become 
more  and  more  common  problems  for  the  two  missions  to  handle 
together.  The  Siam  Council  should  study  carefully  what  is 
needed  in  both  languages  now  and  what  will  be  needed  in  the  one 
language  in  the  future,  and  we  should  not  waste  strength  and 
money  in  providing  what  will  not  be  needed,  and  we  should  not 
waste  great  opportunities  by  not  providing  what  will  be  needed. 
It  would  seem  that  in  the  near  future  some  combination  of  the 
church  papers  might  well  be  made  that  would  be  bi  lingual  for 
a time  and  until  Siamese  supplants  Lao. 

(X.)  Each  mission  should  suj)jdy  Mi*.  Ilornibrook,  the  Am- 
erican Minister,  with  a complete  and  accurate  list  of  all  its  prop- 
erties, with  a statement  of  the  title  which  we  have  to  each,  and 
the  amount  of  money  which  we  have  expended  upon  each  either 
in  the  purchase  of  the  land  or  in  buildings  and  improvements 
upon  it.  It  can  only  be  a question  'of  time  until  a new  treaty 
surrendering  our  extra-territorial  jurisdiction  is  made,  and  at 
that  time,  as  you  will  remember,  our  property  titles  were  to  be 
secured  to  us  in  accordance  with  the  agreement  made  between 
Mr.  King  and  Mr.  Westengard  and  accepted  by  the  Board  in  No- 
vember, 1909,  in  the  following  action,  “With  respect  to  the  mem- 
orandum regarding  American  missionary  lands  agreed  upon  by 
Mr.  AVestengard  and  Mr.  King  the  American  Minister  to  Siam, 
the  Board  expressed  its  gratification  at  this  agreement  and  at  the 
good  will  ever  displayed  toward  the  mission  by  the  Siamese  gov- 
ernment. It  has  no  desire  to  hold  lands  under  lease  from  the 
government  or  otherwise,  exce]>t  for  missionary  pui’poses.  In 
making  note  of  the  agreement  on  its  minutes  it  was  voted  to  put 
on  record  the  Board’s  uuderstaudiiig  of  Section  1 as  explained 
by  Mr.  AVestengard,  namely,  that  under  this  .section  reading  as 
follows : 

“ ‘As  to  lands  to  which  the  missions  now  possess  papers  of 
any  kind,  they  should  apply  to  have  title  papers  issued  in  the 
regular  way,’ — the  missions  may  apply  for  full  title  to  any  prop- 
erties which  they  now  hold  to  which  they  believe  they  can  estab- 
lish valid  title  under  Siamese  law,  even  though  they  may  not 
possess  in  every  case  papers  for  such  properties.” 

The  second  section  of  the  agreement  between  Air.  AA’estengard 
and  Air.  King  read,  “As  to  lands  held  under  lease  from  goveni- 
ment  or  of  which  the  mis.sions  are  otherwise  in  legal  occupation, 
the  Siamese  government  will  not  interrupt  the  possession  by 
the  missions  as  long  as  they  continue  to  use  the  land  for  mi.ssion 
purposes.” 

The  third  section  referred  to  the  Rajaburi  land,  which  has 
since  been  exchanged  by  the  government.  The  fourth  and  fifth 
sections  are  as  follows: 

“It  should  be  understood  that  the  Siamese  government  is  not 
identified  in  any  way  with  wat  administration,  that  is  to  say, 
the  foregoing  understanding  must  not  be  construed  as  a promise 

72 


by  the  governmeut  to  iuterfei-e  with  lands  held  and  claimed  by 
religious  authorities,  whether  Buddhist  or  of  any  other  faith.” 

“Of  course  all  mission  lands  are  held  subject  to  the  exercises 
by  the  Siamese  government  of  the  right  of  eminent  domain.” 

You  will  see  that  it  is  ver^’  desirable  that  Mr.  Hornibrook 
should  have  a full  statement  regarding  our  property.  I know 
that  you  will  find  him  entirely  sympathetic  in  his  attitude  and 
in  his  desire  always  to  see  whatever  is  right  accomplished. 

There  is  only  one  specific  property  question,  I think,  of  which 
we  need  to  write,  and  that  is  the  Sumray  i^roperty.  It  is  our 
strong  judgment  that  nothing  further  should  be  done  to  alienate 
this  property,  that  there  should  be  no  further  biiildings  erected 
or  projected  upon  it  without  the  Board’s  approval,  that  no  new 
tenants  should  be  settled  iipou  the  property,  and  that  no  further 
limitations  should  be  created  upon-  the  Board's  moral  control 
of  the  property  and  its  freedom  to  act  with  regard  to  it.  The 
cemetery  and  the  church  and  the  .sentiments  whicli  already  exist 
in  the  Christian  community  must  be  considered  by  the  Board, 
but  no  additional  moral  or  sentimental  liens  should  be  created. 

(XI.)  With  regard  to  tlie  medical  Avork,  whatever  needs  to 
be  said  in  addition  to  what  Dr.  Bovaird  said  so  well  at  our  vari- 
ous conferences,  can  perhaps  wait  until  we  con.sider  our  report 
to  the  Board,  with  the  exception  of  two  or  three  points.  We  are 
agreed  that  we  must  increasingly  lay  emphasis  upon  the  quality 
of  our  work  and  the  strength  of  its  missionary  spirit.  The  gov- 
ernment will  far  outdistance  us  in  quantity  and  it  may  be  that 
we  .shall  .soon  find  that  we  have  no  field  in  some  of  our  stations 
unless  out  of  our  hospitals  there  we  make  .small  model  institu- 
tions surpassing  anything  that  tlie  government  can  do.  E.spec- 
ially  in  southern  Siam  where  the  government  trained  men  will 
be  most  numerous  and  where  we  have  so  much  more  work  than 
we  have  a medical  staff  for,  the  mission  will  need  carefully  to 
study  the  whole  i)roblem.  As  to  the  proposed  medical  school  in 
Chieng  Mai,  what  we  have  seen  in  Bangkok  .strengthens  the  argu- 
ment which  was  made  in  the  north  that  the  Bangkok  school 
could  .scarcely  be  relied  upon  to  supply  Christian  medical  doc- 
tors for  the  Bayap  Monthon  in  which  our  Lao  work  lies.  We 
heartily  approve  of  your  going  forward  and  doing  all  that  you 
can  in  medical  education  in  Chieng  Mai  with  the  present  force 
and  equipment,  but  we  agree  that  there  should  be  no  beginning 
of  expenditure  on  a new  medical  school  plant  until  the  money 
is  actually  in  hand  sufficient  to  complete  and  equip  whatever  is 
begun,  and  until  the  Board  takes  the  re.sponsibility  of  authoriz- 
ing the  outlay.  As  Dr.  Bovaird  pointed  out,  the  establishment 
and  maintenance  of  a medical  school  is  a heavy  undertaking  and 
we  must  not  begin  this  tower  until  we  see  "our  way  to  going 
through  with  it. 

(XII.)  The  problem  of  the  evangelization  of  the  city  of 
Bangkok  and  the  responsibility  which  rests  upon  us  for  under- 
taking it  are  appalling.  At  the  present  time  we  have  not  one 

73 


missionary  who  is  equipped  and  available  for  this  work.  We 
have  no  evangelistic  organization  in  the  city  correlating  all 
available  energA'  and  operating  on  a systematic  plan.  We  hope 
that  without  delay,  the  j)lan  propose<l  by  the  South  Siam  Mission 
at  its  last  annual  meeting  may  be  inaugurated.  Within  this 
huge  problem  of  Bangkok  city  is  the  smaller  but  sufficiently  op- 
pressive problem  of  the  Chinese.  We  are  not  beginning  to  touch 
this  Chinase  community  with  any  .schools  as  the  Methodists  are 
touching  the  Chinese  in  Penang  and  Singapore  in  great  .self- 
supporting  schools.  We  could  not  do  this  in  Bangkok  in  the 
same  way,  as  the  Methodists  receive  large  grants  in  aid  from 
the  Straits  government,  but  we  cannot  rest  sati.sfled  with  what 
is  being  done  for  the  200,000  Chinese  in  Bangkok  through  the 
tw'O  churche.s,  our  own  and  the  Bapti.st.  Increasingly  the  Chin- 
ese are  moving  northward  with  the  railroad,  and  unless  exclus- 
ion measures  are  adopted,  they  are  sure  to  increase  throughout 
the  countiw-  and  to  mingle  their  blood  with  the  Siamese.  Either 
some  other  mission  should  come  in  to  w'ork  for  them, — and  such 
a separate  work  outside  of  Bangkok  would  not  be  practicable, — 
or  the  Baptists  and  w’e  mu.st  do  a great  deal  more. 

(XIII.)  Siam  is  in  a time  of  transition  both  politically  and 
religiously.  Various  influences  are  operating  much  more  actively 
than  in  the  reign  of  the  late  King.  It  is  clear  to  any  careful 
observer,  that  the  pre‘Jent  King  is  taking  his  responsibilities 
verv'  seriously  and  is  dealing  with  a difficult  problem  with  a 
great  deal  of  character  and  ability.  It  is  fa.scinating  to  watch 
his  measures  for  the  creation  of  a sense  of  nationality.  It  is 
easy  to  feel  the  deepest  sympathy  with  him  as  he  wrestles  with 
his  problem.  He  is  trjing  to  create  a national  consciousness, 
but  if  he  succeeds  wdll  such  a consciousness  endure  an  absolut- 
ism, even  such  a benevolent  one  as  his?  He  is  using  Buddhism 
as  one  of  his  agencies,  but  can  it  stand  such  use  without  damage 
from  which  it  cannot  recover?  He  is  building  up  a personal 
loyalty  w’ithin  an  impersonal  administrative  and  military  sys- 
tem. Can  .such  a divided  loyalty  keep  the  peace?  He  is  educat- 
ing a nationalistic  mind,  but  he  is  using  some  proce.sses  like 
schools,  w’hich  produce  an  internationalistic  mind,  and  others 
which  are  broken  reeds  and  which  will  either  collapse  or  pierce 
his  hands.  Let  us  take  up  the  most  sympathetic  and  cordial 
attitude  toward  his  ^lajesty  and  the  service  which  he  is  seeking 
to  render  his  nation.  Let  us  not  be  afraid  of  any  of  the  pro- 
cesses that  he  is  using.  Fndoubtedly  for  a time  they  are  going 
to  make  it  harder  for  w'eak  Christians.  In  the  end  what  he  is 
doing  w’ill  contribute  as  everything  else  that  men  do  contributes 
to  the  breaking  down  of  error  and  the  progre.ss  of  truth.  Es- 
pecially should  we  .sympathize  with  and  take  the  lead  in  Siamese 
aspirations  and  plans.  We  must  not  do  here  what  we  would 
resent  Germany’s  doing  in  the  Philippines.  Siam  is  trying  to 
unify  the  life  and  language  and  institutions  of  the  people.  We 
should  be  an  active  force,  commending  ourselves  to  the  Siamese 

74 


and  not  a reactionary  force  seeking  to  preserve  and  perpetuate 
separations  and  divisions  which  Siam  is  seeking  to  remove.  We 
have  a golden  opportunity  which  we  may  seize  to  the  lasting  gain 
of  the  Church  or  miss  to  its  long-enduring  loss. 

It  will  he  obvious  to  you  that  some  things  said  in  this  letter 
apply  more  to  one  mission  than  to  the  other,  hut  it  has  seemed 
clearly  wisest  to  write  jointly  to  both,  as  the  missions  have  far 
more  in  common  than  they  have  in  distinction.  We  must  keep 
in  mind  the  official  declaration  of  the  government  itself  which, 
though  some  may  wish  to  qualify  it,  clearly  represents  the  prin- 
ciple on  which  rightly  the  government  is  proceeding,  namely,  that 
the  people  of  Siam  are  one  people  to  be  gathered  under  one  set 
of  institutions  and  led  forward  in  one  history.  The  declaration 
which  I have  in  mind  is  in  the  official  memorandum  regarding 
the  census  issued  in  11)05 : 

“It  is  generally  admitted  that  there  does  not  exist  any  proof 
to  show  that  the  Laos  is  ethnically  distinct  from  the  Thai  or 
Siame.se  race.  For  were  we  to  refer  to  the  matter  of  language, 
we  should  find  that  the  Laos  and  the  Siamese  languages  are  iden- 
tical ; the  difference  between  that  spoken  by  the  Siamese  and  the 
Laos  is  only  in  the  pronounciation  and  in  the  use  of  a few  words 
or  j)hrases — the  degree  of  differeTice  that  would  exist  between  the 
olden  and  the  modern  style  of  speaking  the  same  language.  The 
difference,  in  fact,  is  far  less  marked  than  that  between  the 
vSiamese  spoken  in  Bangkok  and  that  spoken  in  the  Peninsula; 
and  therefore,  if  flie  Laos  are  to  be  classed  as  belonging  to  a 
.st‘parate  race  because  they  speak  Siamese  with  a pronounciation 
different  from  that  s]>oken  in  Bangkok,  then  the  Siamese  of  the 
Peninsula  would  also  have  to  be  considered  as  not  belonging  to 
the  Siamese  race.  Moreover,  it  has  been  definitely  ascertained 
by  leanied  men  that  the  ]»eople  who  are  called  Laos  at  the  ptesent 
<lay  ai-e  really  of  the  Thai  race,  and  they  also  con.sider  themselves 
to  be  such.  The  real  Laos  are  those  ])eo])le  who  are  known  as 
Lawah  or  Lawa  in  Monthon  Bayap,  who  were  the  aboriginal  in- 
habitants of  the  country  before  the  incursion  of  the  Thai,  and 
are  now  only  to  be  found  in  very  small  numbers  widely  scattered 
in  various  j)arts  of  fhe  Kingdom,  and  too  insignificant  to  be  dis- 
tinctively classified  for  census  ])ui7)oses.  For  the  reason  above 
stated,  it  would  serve  no  useful  j>nr])ose  in  the  census  to  divide 
the  pojmlation  of  the  Thai  race  into  two  sections  as  Laos  and 
Siaine.se,  and  therefore  both  Siamese  and  Laos  are  made  to  figure 
under  fhe  common  head  of  the  Thai,  or  Siamese  race.” 

I am  asking  Mr.  Day  and  Dr.  Bovaird  to  add  as  postscripts 
to  this  letter  anything  that  they  may  wish  to  add  by  way  of 
general  supplement  or  concrete  suggestion.  A copy  is  sent  to 
each  station  secretary.  'Will  the  mission  secretaries  be  good 
enough  to  see  that  the  (piestions  suggested  are  placed  on  the 
dockets  of  the  next  mis.sion  meetings.  We  should  be  glad  if  Mr. 
S])ilman  would  show  the  copy  of  the  letter  going  to  Bangkok,  to 
Dr.  McFarland.  With  the  assurance  of  our  continued  prayers 

75 


for  you  and  the  Christians  in  Siam,  ami  witli  fjrateful  memories 
of  all  that  you  were  to  us  and  did  for  us.  I am 
Your  sincere  friend, 

Kobert  E.  Speer. 

To  the  Friends  of  the  Xorth  and  Hmith  Hlam.  Mission's. 

We  wish  we  could  fitly  express  our  thanks  and  gratitude  to 
you  for  all  the  kindness  and  consideration  you  showed  toward 
us  during  our  ha]>py  visit  to  Siam.  Our  one  great  desire  is  to 
be  of  some  service  to  you  and  to  help  you  make  your  mi.ssions  so 
effective  and  perfect  that  they  will  be  models  of  the  mis.sionarj' 
enterprise.  You  can  make  them  so.  and  there  have  been  no  pow- 
ers granted  to  men  in  work  for  God  upon  which  you  cannot  draw 
with  assurance.  We  rejoice  in  your  talents  and  your  devotion, 
and  we  i>ray  for  your  continual  guidance. 

I shall  try  to  be  very  definite  and  particular  in  my  suggestions, 
though  some  must  necessarily  be  of  general  character. 

The  Siam  missions  will  do  well,  I believe,  to  strengthen  the 
existing  work,  to  develop  intensively  rather  than  extensively 
and  not  seek  to  cover  too  much  additional  ground  ju.st  now.  Let 
us  do  well  what  we  are  already  trying  to  do.  It  may  .seem  that 
the  evangeli.stic  work  would  be  an  exception  to  a general  policy 
of  this  kind,  but  to  strengthen  and  prosecute  more  effectively  the 
evangelistic  work  in  our  already  traveled  fields  is  just  one  of 
the  cases  in  point.  In  one  station  we  were  told  by  an  evangelist 
that  he  was  out  only  two  and  a half  months  in  the  year  whereas 
similar  fields  have  been  toured  for  eight  or  ten  months.  Let  us 
make  our  work  standard  wherever  we  do  it. 

“More  rigid  rules” — there  seems  to  be  a network  of  rules  but 
the  executive  power  charged  with  the  res])onsibility  of  seeing 
that  tlie  rules  are  followed  is  weak.  Committees  for  over.sight 
do  not  oversee,  and  individuals  in  some  cases  pay  no  heed  to 
them. 

Rather  than  new  rules,  there  seems  to  me  to  be  needed  a dif- 
ferent attitude  toward  all  constituted  authority  both  toward 
the  Board  and  toward  the  field. 

The  Executive  Committee  of  a mission  should  be  representa- 
tive and  not  constituted  from  one  station.  If  distance  prevents, 
— of  course  that  must  be  taken  into  consideration 

The  Property  Committee  of  an  entire  mission  does  not  seem 
to  be  adequate  for  the  building  work  in  each  station.  Could  there 
not  be  a committee  in  each  station,  perhaps  a committee  already 
formed,  to  counsel  with  the  builder  and  in  his  absence  supervise 
the  work  and  take  active  responsibility  for  it. 

Fire  Insurance  Protection.  The  missions  must  plan  for  such 
protection  in  compounds  where  the  buildings  are  extensive  and 
closely  joined.  Either  insurance  in  public  companies  should  be 
taken  out,  or  apparatus  or  fire  plugs  installed.  Where  this  takes 
place  on  mission  press  projierty  the  presses  should  bear  the  ex- 
pense as  they  are  the  money-making  concenis.  If  the  money  is 
expected  from  the  Board  it  must  be  included  in  the  estimates. 

76 


Class  7.  More  care  must  be  taken  regarding  the  up-keep  of 
property  and  a policy  of  conservation  by  paoitiug  and  so  forth 
begun.  The  best  building  work  and  care  will  be  done  by  assign- 
ing this  work  to  one  man  who  will  work  closely  with  his  iuis.sion 
committee. 

No  new  building  work  should  be  begun  without  being  able  to 
see  through  to  the  end  of  at  least  its  first  stage.  The  mission  and 
the  Board  must  not  be  harassed  by  buildings  with  uncompleted 
walls  and  roofs. 

Property  data.  Eesponsibility  should  be  fixed  for  furnishing 
the  property  data  asked  for  by  the  Board  and  the  property  com- 
mittee of  the  mi.ssion  .should  check  the  matter  up  and  see  that 
the  data  asked  for  has  been  sent. 

Treasury  Matters.  (1)  The  South  Siam  Mission  should  i)er- 
haps  take  some  action  putting  on  record  the  change  in  treasury 
work  by  which  all  accounts  are  centered  in  Bangkok. 

(2)  Individuals  should  know  how  much  money  they  have  to 
spend  in  a work  and  how  much  they  have  already  used  so  that 
by  properly  apportioning  it  they  can  complete  the  year  within 
the  appropriation. 

(3)  More  careful  and  incisive  thinking  and  planning  ahead 
for  the  work  will  save  embarrassments  from  which  the  missions 
have  sutt'ered.  Items  of  exi)enditnre  which  can  be  foreseen  must 
be  put  into  the  coming  estimates  and  forwarded  to  the  Board 
with  .suitable  re(pie.sts  and  explanation.  If  it  is  believed  that 
on  account  of  some  exigency  a single  lady’s  salary  should  be  ad- 
vanced, the  item  should  be  submitted  to  the  Board  and  the  change 
I)lanned  for  in  advance  so  that  it  will  not  be  the  cause  of  trouble 
and  delay  later.  The  i>ower  to  raise  a salary  is  vested  in  the 
Board  alone. 

(4j  Bangkok  Christian  College  Keceii>ts.  As  to  the  receipts  on 
hand  of  the  B.  C.  C.  at  the  close  of  a fi.scal  year  it  appears  that 
these  are  not  in  reality  a sui'i)lus,  but  the  funds  are  required  to 
carry  the  institution  over  the  non-producing  months.  If  these 
were  turned  back  to  the  Board  an  approi)riation  from  the  Boaixl 
would  be  rtHpiired  to  tide  the  institution  over,  later.  It  there- 
fore is  clear  that  llu^e  funds  should  be  regarded  in  the  same 
light  as  tho.se  of  hospitals  aiul  dis])ensaries  which  have  earned 
their  own  capital  funds  upon  which  to  bank.  All  exj)eiiditures 
out  of  such  funds  for  j)roperty  improvements  should  be  rei)orted 
to  the  Board.  The  maintenance  of  the  ])ro]»erty  should  receive 
lirst  consideration  and  should  be  taken  care  of  out  of  the  .sur- 
j)lus  receipts. 

(5)  Self-supporting  institutions,  such  as  hospitals  and  dis- 
pen.saries  and  presses, — it  is  bad  practice  for  these  to  be  bor- 
rowing money  from  the  Board  on  which  to  buy  their  supplies  or 
for  any  other  j)urpose.  Some  have  built  up  banking  funds  of 
their  own  in  si>ite  of  large  discouragements  and  these  are  to  be 
highly  commended.  Why  cannot  all  do  it?  Perhaps  the  appli- 
cation of  more  business  acumen  will  put  all  these  institutions 


on  their  own  feet.  Carefnl  book-keej)ing  will  helj)  greatly.  If 
they  cannot  do  thi.s,  then  an  appropriation  should  be  asked  for 
from  the  Board  as  a banking  fund,  .since  the  practice  of  using 
Board  funds  without  authorization  is  unjustified. 

(G)  The  Board  will  have  no  objection  to  depositing  funds  for 
the  missions  with  approved  merchants  or  companies  in  New’ 
York  w’iio  will  cable  to  their  correspondents  at  their  own  charges 
to  pay  over  the  equivalent  local  currency  to  our  treasurers  on  the 
field,  the  rate  to  be  half  w’ay  between  the  banker’s  buj’ing  and 
selling  rates.  The  office  in  New  York,  however,  mu.st  be  in- 
formed as  to  the  time  and  the  amount  of  money  required  peri- 
odically. 

Mission  Meetings.  By  all  means  have  deliberate  mhs.sion  meet- 
ings long  enough  to  allow  for  the  developing  of  the  spiritual  life 
and  to  confer  together  regarding  all  the  problems.  Every  ques- 
tion should  be  amply  di.scussed  and  understood  by  all. 

The  Language  Committee  should  take  care  at  once  on  the  ar- 
rival of  a new’  missionary’  to  place  definite  helps  in  his  hands 
and  should  give  him  definite  instructions. 

Very  sincerely  yours, 

Dwight  H.  Day. 


NOTE  BY  DR.  BOVAIRD 

In  addition  to  what  Mr.  Speer  has  already  written  regarding 
the  medical  work,  there  are  some  further  questions  w’hich  I wish 
to  raise  as  suggestions  of  the  lines  on  which  it  seems  to  me  that 
work  could  be  improved  and  strengthened. 

(I.)  Has  the  work  not  now’  developed  sufficiently  and  secured 
such  a hold  upon  the  peoi)le  as  to  warrant  an  advance  in  the 
living  conditions  in  all  the  hospitals?  Instead  of  permitting  the 
patients  to  live  in  the  hospitals  exactly  as  they  do  at  home  may 
w’e  not  expect  them  to  conform  to  some  regulations  which  w’ill 
suggest  to  them  better  ways?  Specifically,  cannot  the  plan  fol- 
low’ed  in  some  of  the  hosiiitals  in  the  south  and  now  being  adopt- 
ed by  Dr.  Shellman  in  the  new’  ho.spital  at  Pitsanuloke  of  hav- 
ing a separate  structure  for  cooking  and  requiring  all  food  sup- 
plies and  utensils  to  be  kept  therein  be  followed  throughout  all 
the  mission  hospitals?  No  argument  is  needed  as  to  the  desira- 
bility of  this  change.  It  is  a question  of  practicability  which 
must  be  ausw’ered  in  each  institution  for  itself. 

(II.)  In  like  manner  cannot  we  introduce  some  sort  of  bed 
in  all  our  hospitals  instead  of  permitting  the  native  practice  of 
simply  spreading  matting  on  the  floor?  This  suggestion  has  be- 
hind it,  of  course,  the  same  idea  as  the  preceding  one,  but  there 
is  also  in  it  another  purpose.  The  accuracy  of  diagnosis  and 
thoroughness  of  work  done  in  any  hospital  will,  as  a rule,  be 
proportionate  to  the  frequency  and  detail  of  the  physical  exam- 
ination of  the  patients.  So  long  as  they  lie  on  mats  on  the  floor 

78 


(and  the  sicker  they  are  the  more  likely  they  are  to  keep  that 
position)  such  examination  is  well-nigh  impossible.  I feel  quite 
sure  that  if  the  patients  were  on  beds  or  platforms  of  even  the 
simplest  construction  physical  examinations  would  be  more  fre- 
quent and  more  satisfactory.  The  objections  to  this  change,  in- 
cluding the  Buddhist  prohibition,  are  well  known,  but  cannot 
they  be  overcome  if  it  is  regarded  of  real  importance  to  do  so? 

(III.)  Cannot  something  more  be  done  to  strengthen  the 
clinical-laboratory  work  in  every  hospital?  As  one  views  the 
work  in  different  institutions  he  finds  some  apparatus  in  each 
of  them,  but  also  observes  evidences  of  much  variation  in  the 
amount  of  its  use.  This  again  is  a matter  which  touches  very 
closely  the  question  of  diagnosis  and  treatment.  Just  in  pro- 
portion as  this  clinical-laboratory  work  improves  in  amount  and 
quality  will  the  accuracy  of  the  work  done  in  the  hospital  im- 
prove. Without  it  we  can  only  guess  at  many  problems  which 
are  susceptible  of  convincing  demon.stration.  I am  quite  aware 
of  the  burden  this  work  throws  on  men  who  already  find  them- 
selves overtaxed,  but  I desire  to  call  attention  to  it,  as  one  of 
the  directions  in  which  our  woi’k  could  be  most  improved.  Here 
well  trained  native  assistants  may  be  of  considerable  service.  If 
each  man  cannot  train  them  for  himself,  possibly  the  school  at 
Chieng  Mai  may  be  able  to  provide  them,  at  least  in  the  course  of 
a few  yeai-s. 

In  this  connection  I would  suggest  to  all  the  men  who  have 
not  yet  had  it,  the  extreme  value  of  a thorough  course  in  tropi- 
cal medicine  in  some  first  rate  school.  Trusting  that  these  sug- 
gestions may  be  of  some  value  to  you  and  assuring  you  indi- 
vidually of  any  aid  it  is  in  my  power  to  lend  you,  I am 

Faithfully  yours 

David  Bovaird. 


79 


8.  PROBLEMS  OF  THE  WORK  OF  OUR  TWO  SIAM 

MISSIONS 


The  letters  which  we  have  sent  to  the  Board  from  each  of  the 
eight  stations  which  we  visited  in  Siam,  the  preceding  accounts 
of  the  religioiis  and  political  environment  of  the  work,  and  the 
letter  which  we  sent  back  to  the  tr\’o  missions,  to  reach  them  in 
time  for  their  mission  meetings,  and  submitting  to  the  missions 
some  of  the  questions  and  suggestions  arising  from  our  visit, 
need  to  be  supplemented  by  a few  additional  statements  and  by 
a more  careful  discussion  of  some  of  the  evangelistic,  educational, 
and  political  problems  with  which  the  missions  are  dealing. 

I.  The  Two  M'lssiom.  In  the  past  the  two  missions  in  Siam 
have  dealt  with  very  dis.similar  conditions  and  their  labors  have 
met  with  quite  different  results.  (1)  The  Siam  Mis.sion,  now 
called  the  South  Siam  Mission,  was  establi.shed  in  1840,  and  for 
twenty  years  Bangkok  was  the  only  station.  Then  in  1861 
Petchaburi  was  occupied,  and  in  1880  Rajburi,  which  in  1910, 
because  of  its  proximity  to  Petchaburi.  was  made  an  out-.station 
with  Siamese  workers  in  charge.  In  1800  nearly  fifty  years 
after  the  mission  was  established,  the  first  stations  were  opened 
at  a distance  fi*om  Bangkok,  Pitsanuloke  in  the  north  near  the 
boundary  between  the  two  mission.s,  and  Nakon  in  the  southwest 
on  the  peninsula.  Eleven  years  afterwards,  on  the  urgent  appeal 
of  Dr.  E.  P.  Dunlap,  the  newest  station  was  opened  at  Tap 
Teang,  seventy  miles  west  of  Nakon  on  the  opposite  side  of  the 
peninsula.  It  will  be  seen  that  the  expansion  of  the  mission  has 
been  exceedingly  slow  and  that  for  years  its  work  was  confined 
to  Bangkok  and  Petchaburi  and  the  s\irrounding  region,  with 
occasional  work  in  more  distant  parts  of  the  field  by  the  few 
missionaries  who  were  free  for  itineration.  In  1840  the  mission 
began  with  two  members.  In  ISGO  it  had  seven,  in  1880,  eleven, 
in  1900,  thirty-three,  and  at  present,  forty-nine.  The  population 
of  the  South  Siam  Mission  field,  according  to  the  latest  govern- 
ment figures,  dated  August,  1912,  is  6,932,670,  distributed  at 
present  among  the  five  stations  as  follows,  assigning  to  Bangkok 
whatever  has  not  been  allotted  to  any  of  the  other  stations : Bang- 
kok, 5,038,672,  Petchaburi,  419,714,  Pitsanuloke,  608,712;  Nakon, 
636,603,  Tap  Teang,  228,969.  With  the  exception  of  one  period  in 
1883  in  Petchabuid,  the  growth  of  converts  has  been  very  slow, 
and  much  of  the  growth  at  Petchaburi  at  the  .special  time  referred 
to  was  lost  afterwards  through  the  falling  off  of  the  new  converts 
in  disappointing  ways.  In  I860  there  were  five  communicants, 
in  1880,  157,  in  1900,  292,  and  at  present  819.  The  only  outward 
causes  that  can  be  suggested  for  this  slow  growth  are  the  char- 
acter and  influence  of  Siamese  Buddhism  and  the  general  char- 
acter and  disposition  of  the  Siamese  people.  Although  we  have 

80 


been  at  work  in  Siam  for  sixty-five  years,  there  are  many  parts 
of  the  field  of  the  southern  mission  which  have  never  been  vis- 
ited by  any  missionary  or  Siamese  evangelist  and,  as  will  appear, 
it  has  never  been  possible  for  the  mission  to  work  effectively 
even  the  stations  occupied  and  the  immediately  adjoining  coun- 
try. There  have  been  periods  of  some  years  when  the  whole 
miasion  has  been  unable  to  do  as  much  itinerating  work  as,  for 
example,  the  Tabriz  station  or  the  Chefoo  station.  (2)  The  Laos 
Mission,  now  called  the  North  Siam  Mission,  was  estaiblished  in 
1867  by  the  occupation  of  Chieng  Mai  station.  It  was  eighteen 
years  before  the  second  station  was  established  at  Lakon  in  1885. 
This  was  followed  by  the  rapid  occupation  of  Prae  in  1893,  Nan 
and  Chieng  Kai  in  1894,  and  the  authorization  of  further  expan- 
sion to  the  north  in  1913.  Lampoon  was  established  as  a sta- 
tion in  1891  and  is  still  occupied  by  missionaries,  but  is  associat- 
ed as  a sub-station  with  Chieng  Mai.  The  whole  of  the  North 
Siam  Mi.ssion,  with  the  exception  of  the  extension  work  north- 
wards, lies  in  the  one  monthon  or  province  of  Bayap  with  a popu- 
lation of  1,216,817.  Here  the  work  from  the  beginning  took  root- 
age among  the  Lao  people  ju.st  as  the  Baptist  work  in  Burma 
laid  hold  upon  the  Karens.  The  Lao,  like  all  animistic  people, 
lived  in  mortal  fear  of  spirits,  and  the  message  of  the  gospel 
came  to  them  as  a word  of  joyful  deliverance.  From  the  begin- 
ning, Dr.  MacGilvary  magnified  the  imj)ortance  of  itinerating 
work,  traveling  to  and  fro  among  the  people  and  inducing  the 
new  missionaries  as  they  came  to  the  field  to  pursue  the  same 
method.  The  work  began  with  two  tragic  martyrdoms,  and  the 
blood  of  one,  at  least,  of  the  two  i>roved  good  seed  and  has  yielded 
a great  harvest  of  Christians  and  Christian  workers.  The  growffh 
of  the  native  church  has  come  in  undulation.s,  the  large  accessions 
following  famines  or  epidemics,  in  whicli  tlie  help  of  the  mission- 
aries touched  the  hearts  of  the  people  and  Cliristian  love  demon- 
strated the  imi»otence  of  tlie  evil  si>irits.  In  1880  the  number  of 
missionaries  was  8 and  of  communicants  49,  in  1900,  missionaries 
42,  and  communicants  2,110,  and  at  i)resent,  mi.ssionaries  58,  and 
communicants  6,934.  It  will-  be  seen  that  counting  the  whole  mi.s- 
sion staff,  men  and  women,  there  is  an  average  of  one  missionary 
to  21,000  peoi)le  in  the  Siam  field  of  the  North  Siam  Mi.ssion,  and 
of  one  mi.ssionary  to  every  144,000  people  in  the  South  Siam  Mis- 
.sion.  Numerically,  accordingly,  these  two  mi.ssions  and  e.spec- 
ially  the  North  Siam  Mission  rei)resent  as  great  a strength  in 
ju-oportion  to  the  ]K)pulation  as  any  of  our  missions,  and  I 
think  in  North  Siam  the  number  of  jieople  per  missionary  is 
much  less  than  in  any  other  mi.ssion  of  the  church.  When  the 
work  in  the  Laos  field  was  begun,  that  region  had  little  more 
than  a nominal  relationshij)  to  Siam.  Now,  however,  Prae  and 
Lakon  and  Chieng  ]\lai  are  nearer  in  tinie  to  Bangkok  than  Tap 
Teang  and  Nakon  are,  though  the  railroads  will  .soon  remove 
this  ine<juality.  With  great  tact  and  patience  Siam  has  extended 
her  political  sovereignty,  pensioning  the  old  Lao  chiefs  at  the 

81 


same  time  that  their  powers  have  been  slowly  absorbed  by  the 
Siamese  adininistratioii.  The  national  system  of  education  is 
spreading  over  the  conntiy  and  l>efore  many  years  the  differences 
in  sentiment  and  temper  and  accessibility  of  the  different  sec- 
tions of  the  country  are  likely  to  diminish  if  not  disappear. 

II.  Economic  and  Social  Conditions.  On  the  economic  theorv 
that  that  society  is  happiest  where  the  division  of  labor  is  least 
intricate,  where  household  trades  and  industries  have  not  been 
displaced  by  factories,  and  whei’e  each  man  produces  from  the 
soil  the  equivalent  of  what  he  con.sumes,  Siam  ought  to  be  one 
of  the  happiest  and  most  prosj)erous  countries  in  the  world.  Its 
industries  are  agriculture,  with  a little  mining,  with  household 
weaving  by  the  women  and  rather  elementary  development  of 
the  trades  by  the  men,  and  a government-regulated  cutting  of 
teak  lumber  by  companies  of  foreign  capitalization.  Most  men, 
including  many  village  and  town’s  people,  have  their  own  paddy 
fields  where  they  raise  their  own  supply  of  rice,  and  genial  nature 
with  little  assistance  supplies  what  other  food  is  required.  Is 
Siam  then  an  economic  paradise?.  It  is  true  that  there  is  little 
begging,  and  that,  in  the  absence  of  drought,  no  one  need  go 
hungry  or  be  in  want.  But  the  general  comfort  and  ease  of 
living  have  brought  with  them  their  own  drawbacks.  There  is  no 
efficient  and  industrious  labor.  What  need  is  there  of  labor 
where  a livelihood  is  not  dependent  upon  hard  toil?  The  men 
of  the  country  accordingly  take  life  without  effort  or  intensity. 
Any  i)ublic  improvements  must  be  made  by  Chinese  labor  or  by 
other  than  the  Sianie.se  elements  in  the  national  population. 
The  women  are  the  real  working  force  of  the  land,  the  house- 
managers  and,  it  would  seem,  the  money-masters.  In  the  great 
gambling  establishments  in  Bangkok  where  tens  of  thousands 
gather  every  night,  it  is  the  Siamese  women  and  the  Chinese 
men  who  are  the  gamblers,  almost  never  a Chinese  woman  or  a 
Siamese  man.  The  absence  of  all  differentiation  of  labor  in  the 
country  and  the  simplicity  of  the  industrial  organization,  in- 
stead of  promoting  progress  and  well-being,  are  partly  a sign 
and  partly  a cause  of  the  general  industrial  torpor. 

Legally  the  position  of  the  wife  is  not  very  secure.  There  was 
no  marriage  law  at  all  in  Siam  until  1898,  when  the  following 
decree  was  issued,  not  directly  as  a Siamese  regiilation,  but  as 
part  of  a decree  providing  for  the  marriage  of  foreigners  in  Siam : 
“Marriage,  according  to  Siamese  Law  and  ciistom,  is  a contract 
between  man  and  wife,  to  which  the  ordinary  principles  which 
attach  to  other  contracts  are  applicable,  and  it  is  consequently 
validly  celebrated  whenever  it  clearly  results  from  the  words 
exchanged  or  from  the  rites  observed  that  both  parties  freely 
consent  to  take  each  other  as  man  and  wdfe,  provided  he  or  she 
does  not  labour  under  some  particular  disability.”  In  the  past 
no  registration  of  marriage  has  been  required  and  the  marriage 
arrangement  has  been  dissoluble  by  the  same  easy  and  unregis- 
tered process  by  which  it  was  established.  In  one  of  the  essays 


in  the  “Siam  Observer,”  si^ed  Asvabahn,  and  attributed  to  the 
King,  some  strong  objections  are  made  to  the  old  practice  ot 
easy,  natural  marriage  and  divorce.  “The  man,”  saj's  the  essay- 
ist, “has  it  all  practically  his  owui  way.  When  he  gets  tired  of 
the  woman  he  can  pack  her  off  with  or  without  bag  and  baggage, 
without  troubling  to  ask  for  her  opinion  at  all.”  To  the  argu- 
ment that  such  marriage  is  the  most  natiiral  and  simple  kind, 
the  essay  replie.s,  “I  really  do  not  know  for  whom  it  may  be 
called  simple.  It  seems  far  from  simple  to  know  who  and  who 
are  husband  and  wife,  because  there  are  no  announcements  and 
notifications,  no  other  evidence  than  that  of  eye-witnesses. . . . 
There  are  scores  and  scores  of  cases  of  dispute  with  regard  to  the 
propertj'  of  deceased  persons,  which  have  occupied  far  more  of 
the  Court’s  time  than  the  importance  of  the  cases  warrant,  solely 
because  of  the  practical  impossibility  of  proving  whether  some 
of  the  claimants  really  were  the  wives  of  the  deceased  or  not. . . . 
If  we  had  never  had  any  form  of  wedding  at  all,  I should  not  so 
much  resent  this  ‘Natural  ^larriage’  with  all  its  confusing  and, 
to  my  mind,  shameful  and  immoral  complications.  The  excuse 
I have  heard  peoj)le  give  for  not  being  wedded  in  the  old  Siamese 
style  is  that  it  is  too  exi)ensive.  But  it  need  not  be  so  at  all, 
because  all  that  is  neces.saiy  is  to  invite  one  or  two  elderly  rela- 
tives or  friends,  respected  by  both  the  bride  and  groom,  and  let 
such  persons  pour  lustral  water  over  the  couple,  and  the  thing 
is  done.  lioyal  weddings  are  even  simi)ler  than  that;  for  all 
the  bride  and  groom  have  to  do  is  to  present  themselves  before 
His  Majesty,  the  King,  with  the  customary  oti’erings  of  candles, 
incense,  and  fresh  llower.s,  when  the  King  i)ours  lustral  water 
on  the  couj)le  and  the  couple  are  legally  married.  AVhere  is  the 
expense  in  such  .simple  forms  of  wedding?  Also,  the  Army  and 
the  Ministry  of  the  Royal  Household  now  actually  have  regula- 
tions for  the  regi.stration  of  marriages,  and  I feel  sure  that  if 
a fairly  general  desire  were  ex]u-essed  for  some  form  of  civil 
marriage  for  general  use,  the  Covernment  would  without  delay 
introduce  a measure  which,  I hear,  is  already  in  contemplation 
Jibout  civil  marriages  before  registrars.  Wh}'  have  some  people 
got  such  rooted  objection  to  making  patent  the  fact  of  their 
marriage?  For  want  of  any  better  explanation  I must  conclude 
that  it  must  be  because  such  peo])le  desire  to  leave  the  door 
open,  so  to  .speak;  that  is  to  say,  they  consider  their  marriage 
as  a sort  of  temporary  arrangement,  wliivh  could  be  terminated 
without  too  much  fuss  being  made.” 

It  is  interesting  to  observe  that  there  are  government  regula- 
tions re<piiring  registration  of  births  and  deaths,  but,  except  in 
the  army  and  in  the  Roj'al  Household,  there  are  no  registrations 
required  for  marriage. 

Among  the  Lao  we  were  told  that  the  marriage  conditions,  and 
especially  the  protection  of  the  wife’s  interests,  were  more  satis- 
factory thqn  iTi  lower  Siam.  The  inheritance  runs  not  in  the 
male  but  in  the  female  line  among  the  Lao.  As  the  property  be- 

83 


longs  to  the  women,  when  a man  marries  he  goes  to  live  with  the 
wife  ami  her  famih'.  If  there  are  no  girls  in  his  family  she  may 
be  induced  to  join  him  in  liis  jjarents’  house.  If  .so  she  becomes 
the  adopted  daughter  and  inherits  the  property.  Such  a rule  is 
a great  .safeguard  against  ea.sy  divorce.  Tlie  extension  of  Siamese 
law  and  customs  among  the  Lao  is  of  cour.se  modifying  the  tra- 
ditional Lao  idea.s,  and  some  say  that  the  first  effects  of  such  a 
modification  of  old  customs  is  rather  demoralizing:  just  as  in 
Korea  it  is  said  that  the  .Tapane.se  marriage  law.s,  while  on  the 
face  of  them  providing  for  more  eijual  rights  on  the  part  of  men 
and  women,  have  resulted  in  the  first  instance  in  the  facilitation 
of  divorce.  Where  there  are  no  stati.stics,  however,  impre.ssions 
.such  as  the.se  are  very  unreliable,  and  it  can  be  taken  for  granted 
that  both  in  Siam  and  in  Koi‘ea  social  j^rogress  will  bring  wise 
and  equal  marriage  regulations. 

The  main  sources  of  government  income  and  the  main  items 
of  expenditure  in  Siam  are  .shown  in  the  following  tables: 


INCOME 

Ticals 

Gambling  Farms  3.233,276 

Excise  6,000,000 

Opium  15,020,079 

Lottery  Farm  3.522.000 

Land  and  Fishery  Taxes...  7,S55..5.50 

Customs  6.630,100 

Forests  1.S76,300 

Mines  1.631. .”00 

Railways  .5,672.000 

Slaughter  License  Fees....  1,148,900 
Capitation  Taxes  7,312,015 


EXPENDITCBES 

Ticals 

Ministry  of  the  Interior. . . .11,82,3,883 

Ministry  of  War 13..500,000 

Ministry  of  Marine 4,420,000 

Ministry  of  Foreign  Affairs  l,0f>9.486 

Ministry  of  Local  Gov’t.  . . . 5.208,128 

Ministry  of  Finance .3..387.7.53 

Ministry  of  .Justice 2.772.297 

Ministry  of  Public  Instruc- 
tion and  Worship  1,979,682 

Ministry  of  Communication.  .5,295,702 
Ministry  of  Lands  and  Agri- 
culture   1.828,704 

His  Majesty's  Privy  Purse 

and  Civil  List  7.7.50.000 


The  three  forms  of  direct  taxation  which  are  most  distinctly 
felt  by  the  people  are,  the  poll  tax  of  four  ticals  annually  (gold 
.fl.52),  levied  on  Siamese  and  Chinese,  but  not  on  Europeans, 
the  land  tax  and  the  tree  tax.  All  land  is  divided  into  three 
cla.sses:  (1)  fallow  land,  (2)  fangloi  land,  that  is,  land  which 
has  been  cleared  and  brought  under  cultivation  but  is  considered 
as  new  land,  and  (fii  kuko  land,  which  has  been  fully  cultivated. 
Kuko  land  almost  invariably,  and  fangloi  land  for  the  most  jiart, 
is  paddy  or  rice  land.  The  tax  on  Kuko  land  is  detennined  by 
the  productivity  of  the  land  whicli  for  purposes  of  taxation  is 
regarded  as  falling  iuto  five  classes  paying  one  tical  per  rai  (a 
rai  is  lfi,900  sq.  feet)  for  the  best  class  of  kuko  land.  The  rate 
on  fangloi  land  is  twenty-five  per  cent,  higher  than  that  on  kuko 
land  adjoining  it,  but  the  rate  on  fallow  land  is  only  one  eighth 
of  the  kuko  land  rate  enforced  in  the  adjoining  area.  And  the 
law  provides  that  “No  disability  in  tenure  shall  arise  from  the 
fact  that  an  owner  has  not  bi’ought  his  land  under  cultivation 
within  three  years  or  any  further  period.  ]>rovided  that  he  pays 
the  fallow  land  rate.”  The  law  is  favorable,  accordingly,  to  the 

84 


rapid  iniprovemeut  of  faiigloi  land,  so  that  it  may  become  kuko 
land  at  a lower  tax,  but  the  law  is  yet  more  favorable  to  the 
holders  of  land  whether  it  be  good  laud  or  bad  land,  which  is  not 
cultivated  at  all,  provided  they  have  any  motive  for  holding  it 
which  justifies  the  pajunent  of  the  slight  tax  imposed  upon  it. 
The  tax  on  trees  ranges  from  one  tical  per  annum  on  durian 
trees  producing  a fruit  of  which  the  Siamese  are  more  fond  than 
of  any  other,  a creamy  fruit  of  delicate  but  over-sweet  flavor 
and  a nauseous  odor,  to  one  satang  (a  satang  is  one  one-hun- 
dredth of  a tical)  for  guava,  l)read  fruit,  jack  fruit  trees,  etc. 
The  industrious  fruit  grower,  accordingly,  like  the  industrious 
paddy  farmer,  must  be  prepared  to  bear  a heavier  weight  of  tax- 
ation than  the  thriftless  and  inefficient.  But  the  Siamese  are 
accu.stomed  to  their  present  form  of  taxation  and  a traditional 
iin))o.st  even  though  not  ideal  is  more  easily  levied  and  collected 
than  a novel  impost  more  economically  correct.  Buildings  for 
residence  are  not  taxed,  but  buildings  used  for  business  purposes 
are  taxed  one  twelfth  of  their  annual  rental  value.  T^nim])roved 
building  land  or  the  land  on  which  buildings  stand  is  not  taxed. 

In  general  tlie  people  are  happy  and  content.  Tliere  is  not  a 
great  amount  of  money  in  the  country.  One  of  tlie  British  con- 
suls told  me  tliat  in  his  region  many  of  tlie  jieople  never  had  as 
much  as  ten  ticals  in  cash  at  any  time  in  their  lives,  even  the 
well  to  do,  that  they  had,  however,  all  that  they  needed  or  cared 
for.  The  country’  is  full  of  kindliness,  and  in  spite  of  the  cleav- 
age between  the  upper  and  lower  classes  in  society,  there  is  a 
great  deal  of  democratic  spirit.  As  in  China,  ability  and  enter- 
jirise  in  the  past  have  been  able  to  make  their  way  irrespective 
of  family  connections,  and  indeed  the  ab.sence  of  family  names 
has  not  only  dejirived  Siam  of  a history  but  has  also  wiped  out 
much  of  the  inheritance  of  family  pride  and  character. 

III.  ir/i//  If  its  Prof/rcxfi  Jiceii  S!low?  It  has  been  already  re- 
marked that  the  only  two  reasons  in  outward  conditions  which 
could  be  suggested  for  the  slow  develojmient  and  fruitfulness  of 
the  work  among  the  Siamese,  are  the  character  of  the  people  and 
the  influence  of  Buddhism.  Somelhing  more  .should  be  said 
regarding  each  of  these  and  also  a third  inliuence  which  is  now 
beginning  to  emerge  and  to  which  reference  has  been  made  else- 
where. 

1.  The  character  of  the  i)eople.  It  is  imj)ossible  to  form  an 
absolutely  just  generalization  regarding  the  character  of  any 
peoi)le.  Ever}’  national  chai-acter  is  comj)osite  and  no  observer 
is  capable  of  discerning  all  the  elements  of  good  and  of  evil  and 
of  j)roperly  balancing  them.  Even  a just  conij)Osite  j>icture 
would  be  unjust,  for  it  would  misrepresent  not  only  multitudes 
of  individuals  but  imi)ortant  elements  of  the  national  life.  If 
any  one  thinks  that  this  is  a mistake  and  that  it  is  i)ossible  to 
frame  fair  racial  generalizations,  all  that  he  needs  to  do  is  to 
take  up  any  book  which  attempts  to  do  such  a work  for  the 
American  people,  and  then  let  him  reflect  that  his  dissatisfaction 

85 


is  not  different  from  that  which  many  Siamese  and  Japanese 
would  feel  with  re{?ard  to  any  judgments,  even  the  most  careful, 
which  should  be  expressed  in  general  terms  with  regard  to 
them.  Mr.  Dickinson’s  little  book  “The  Civilizations  of  China, 
India,  and  Japan,”  is  an  illu.stration  of  the  suggestiveness  and 
the  usefulness  and  the  impo.ssibility'  of  attempts  to  generalize 
national  character.  Without  making  such  an  attempt  in  the 
ca.se  of  Siam,  and  after  recognizing  the  many  noble  and  lovable 
characteristics  in  the  Siamese  cliaracter,  and  these  are  striking 
and  most  attractive,  it  may  be  properly  pointe<l  out  that  there 
are  many  elements  in  Siamese  character  which  help  to  account 
for  some  features  of  tlie  missionary  problem.  The  judgments  of 
a visitor  without  tlie  language  are  of  small  value  in  comparison 
with  the  opinions  of  those  who  have  lived  among  the  x>eople  for 
many  years,  and  what  is  to  be  said  about  the  weaker  Siamese 
characteri.stics  can  be  best  said  in  (piotations  from  our  notebooks 
of  things  said  to  us:  “Our  greatest  hindrance  is  in  the  indif- 
ferentism  of  Sianie.se  character.  Religion,  climate  and  breeding 
all  foster  indifference.  Even  when  the  people  become  Christians 
they  bring  this  element  of  character  with  them  and  lean  and 
loiter,  as  their  racial  habit  makes  it  inevitable  that  they  should.” 
“The  Siamese  are  more  lacking  in  religious  sentiment  and  harder 
to  approach  on  religious  subjects  than  any  otlier  men.  Their 
officials,  while  always  courteous  and  kindly  to  us  as  mi.ssionar- 
ies,  have  no  jiersonal  interest  whatever  in  religion  or  the  .search 
for  religious  truth.”  “The  people  are  wholly  lacking  in  energy 
or  initiative.  Tliere  are  no  time-values  as  in  the  West.  Why 
should  tliere  be  any  liaste  and  what  justification  is  there  of  the 
activity  reiiuired  for  change?”  “There  is  no  depth  of  feeling 
or  conviction  regarding  anytliing,  no  willingness  to  a.ssume  re- 
sponsibility. Nature  remains  the  same,  everv'thing  glides  on. 
The  people,  too,  simply  wish  to  drift  on  and  rest  and  dream.” 
“Outside  of  a certain  small  range  of  activities  in  the  .sowing  and 
the  reaping  of  the  crops,  the  people  are  destitute  of  the  habit 
of  effort  or  action.  All  goveniment  and  the  whole  responsibility 
for  action  are  above  them.  The  idea  of  coping  with  conditions, 
of  altering  life,  is  not  only  a rejected  idea,  it  is  an  unfamiliar 
idea  wliicli  has  never  presented  itself  for  rejection.”  In  the  let- 
ters in  the  “Siam  Observer.”  Asvabahu  complains  of  these  weak- 
nesses and  many  other.s,  and  of  the  imitativeness,  the  indolence, 
the  dislike  of  work,  and  the  ambition  of  the  young  men  who  have 
any  ambition  at  all  to  find  soft  clerical  occupation,  with  the 
result  that  Europeans  and  Chinese  do  the  work  of  the  country. 
“The  Europeans  brought  along  with  them  habits  of  industry  and 
capacity  for  hard  work,  which  were  greatly  appreciated  by  the 
Siamese,  who  are  in  point  of  fact  so  much  more  indolent  by 
habit.  Our  people,  therefore,  first  began  to  like  employing  the 
Farang  (European)  very  much  in  the  same  way  as  they  liked 
Chinese;  that  is  to  say,  whilst  possessing  almost  the  same  cap- 
acity for  work  as  the  Chinese,  the  Farang  were  undoubtedly  very 

S6 


far  superior  in  brain  power.  Therefore,  the  Farang  proved  con- 
venient in  that  they  not  only  helped  to  relieve  us  of  a lot  of 
hard  physical  labour,  but  they  also  relieved  us  of  the  trouble  of 
having  to  think  as  well.  One  paid  the  cash,  and  the  Farang  did 
the  rest ! This  habit  of  mind,  originally  the  outcome  of  indolence 
more  than  anything  else,  soon  developed  by  degrees,  until  it 
became  what  it  now  is,  namely,  the  fixed  idea  that  to  have  any- 
thing done  at  all  well,  it  imtst  be  done  by  a Farang.” 

Intellectually,  in  qualities  of  force  and  administration,  the 
Siamese  are  recognized  as  stronger  than  the  Lao  people.  The 
latter  are  more  hard  working,  however,  more  ready  for  physical 
labor,  even  on  the  building  of  the  new  railroads  for  which  Siam- 
ese workmen  are  unattainable,  although  Siamese  are  willing  to 
run  the  engines  and  to  be  train  conductors. 

Once  again  it  should  be  remarked  that  all  character  estimates 
such  as  the.se  are  of  but  relative  value,  but  they  help  us  to  un- 
derstand the  atmospheric  conditions  in  which  the  mi.ssionaries 
work. 

A Roman  Catholic  priest  on  whom  we  called  in  Bangkok  was 
confident  that  the  whole  root  of  the  difficulty  in  Siam  lay  in  the 
character  of  the  people.  The  Bishop  was  away  from  Siam,  he 
and  some  of  the  priests  having  gone  back  to  France  to  render 
service,  if  they  might,  in  the  war.  Father  Oolombet,  the  pro- 
\'icar  A])ostolic,  was  also  away,  but  a very  pleasant,  young, 
ruddy-face<l,  black-bearded  priest  talked  with  us.  A large  new 
church  was  in  jirocess  of  building  and  we  began  by  asking  him 
regarding  it.  lie  said  they  had  been  at  work  on  it  for  fifteen 
yeai-s  and  would  be  for  twenty  more,  that  they  received  little 
money  from  France  and  had  to  get  what  they  could  upon  the 
field.  All  the  missionaries  were  French,  about  forty  men  and 
fifty  women.  When  they  came  out  it  was  under.stood  that  they 
came  for  life.  They  moved  about,  if  there  might  be  need,  in  Asia, 
but' they  never  returned  to  France  again.  Occasionally  leave  was 
given  .some  one  to  go  on  account  of  health,  but  even*  effort  was 
made  to  avoid  this  as  such  absences  were  disastrous  to  the  work. 
The  ]»riest  who  went  away  had  to  begin  all  over  again  when  he 
returned.  The  Siamese,  he  said,  were  impo.ssible  to  reach.  Most 
of  their  Christians  were  Chine.se  and  the  rest  were  Eurasians. 
The  only  hope  that  ho  entertained  for  Siamese  was  to  take  them 
as  little  children  into  their  schools  and  train  them.  And  even 
then,  he  said,  their  ex]»erience  was  that  when  they  grew  up  they 
were  lost,  unless  the  girls  married  Catholic  husbands  or  the  men 
were  in  the  seiwice  of  the  church.  As  a matter  of  fact  they  had 
no  Siamese  jtriests  who  were  in  the  priesthood,  but  only  boys 
whom  they  had  educated  for  the  priesthood  in  their  schools. 
“The  Siamese  will  never  be  Christians,”  he  said.  “I  do  not  be- 
lieve they  will  be  even  to  the  end  of  the  world.  The  work  here 
is  ver}-  hard,  the  great  difficulty  is  not  Buddhism  but  the  char- 
acter of  the  Siamese  people.”  The  government,  he  said,  was  not 
friendly  to  the  church.  They  could  not  get  any  more  land  now. 

87 


Their  work  extended  only  from  Paknampo,  a hundred  miles 
north  of  Bangkok,  to  Katburi,  seventy -five  miles  southwest.  They 
enjoyed  no  privileges  whatever  in  the  way  of  the  exemption  of 
their  church  members  from  Buddhistic  oaths  or  ceremonies  ex- 
pected of  officials.  The  prevailing  political  influence,  he  thought, 
was  hostile  to  Christianity,  and  he  did  not  think  that  there  was 
any  real  religious  freedom  in  the  country. 

Whatever  may  be  the  qualities  of  Siamese  character,  its  good 
qualities  or  its  weak  ones,  and  however  these  may  as  a matter  of 
fact  have  conditioned  our  work  in  the  past,  all  that  Christian 
faith  can  ever  consent  to  see  in  what  is  evil  is  a need  of  Christ, 
and  in  what  is  good,  an  opportunity  for  Him. 

2.  Enough  has  been  said  in  other  .sections  of  our  report  with 
regard  to  Buddhi.sm  and  the  problem  which  it  offers  to  Chris- 
tianity. In  its  orthodox  form  it  involves  more  radical  denial  of 
the  vital  elements  of  the  Christian  faith  than  almost  any  other 
religion.  Its  ideas,  as  far  as  they  are  embraced,  instead  of  pre- 
paring men’s  minds  for  Christianity  make  them  impervious  to  it. 
Its  supreme  puipose  is  to  cultivate  indifference,  to  extinguish 
ambition,  except  the  ambition  for  extinction,  to  obliterate  long- 
ing and  the  effort  to  achieve  the  thing  longed  for.  The  di.stinc- 
tions  of  ethical  value,  the  unresting  search  for  positive  moral 
good,  and  the  active  warfare  of  the  will  against  evil,  without  and 
wfithin,  which  are  among  the  elementary  postulates  of  religion 
with  us,  are  denied  by  pure  Buddhism.  “Is  there  any  positive 
or  absolute  evil,”  asks  the  Singalese  Buddhist  Catechism,  and  it 
answer.s,  “Xo,  everything  temporal  is  relative,  including  things 
morally  good  or  bad.  Both  expressions  denote  merely  the  higher 
or  lower  degree  of  egotism  of  a living  being  who.se  roots  are  the 
will-to-live,  and  ignorance.  ..  .All  action,  good  as  well  as  bad, 
remains  in  the  sphere  of  finiteness  and  does  not  lead  beyond. 
To  Nirvana  lead  only  the  separation  from  action  and  the  com- 
plete overcoming  and  total  annihilation  of  the  will-to-live  through 
true  knowledge.”  In  another  question  the  catechism  asks.  “Many 
take  the  mild  disposition  of  the  Buddhists  for  weakness.  Is  it 
true  that  Buddhism  paralyzes  energ;v?”  Answer.  “It  may  seem 
so  to  the  deluded,  for  it  is  true  that  Buddhism  paralyzes  the 
coarse,  brutal  energy',  whch  manifests  itself  in  the  eager  striv- 
ing after  wealth  and  enjoyment,  in  the'wild,  pitiless  struggle  for 
existence,  in  that  it  teaches  that  real  happiness  is  not  to  be 
gained  through  material  progress  and  outward  refinement,  but 
only  through  mental  and  moral  development.”  If  this  answer 
were  abbreviated  to  read  “It  is  true  that  Buddhism  paralyzes 
the  energy  which  manifests  itself  in  striving,”  it  would  be  a true 
statement  in  the  view  of  those  who  hold  that  the  real  difficulty  in 
Siam  is  to  be  found  not  in  the  character  of  the  people  but  in 
the  influence  of  their  religion,  or,  who  admitting  the  tropical 
qualities  of  character  found  in  the  people,  believe  that  those 
qualities  alone  would  not  suffice  to  explain  their  religious  list- 
lessness, but  that  responsibility  must  be  borne  in  part  by  the 
racial  inheritance  and  in  part  by  the  religious  education. 

88 


Another  element  in  Bnddhisni  which  makes  it  nnresponsive  to 
Christianity  is  its  authoritative  acceptance  of  two  levels  of  re- 
ligious duty  and  aspiration,  the  level  of  the  Saugho  or  Order  or 
brotherhood  of  the  priesthood,  and  the  other  the  great  mass  of 
the  laity,  who  are  separated  from  the  Order,  not  in  any  mere 
official  way,  but  by  their  legitimate  acceptance  of  a lower  level 
of  religious  life  and  duty,  and  the  postponement  of  their  entrance 
to  a higher  level  to  some  subse(iuent  rebirth.  With  comparatively 
few  exceptions  the  Siamese  men,  all  of  whom  in  the  past  have 
been  accustomed  to  spend  a few  months  in  the  priesthood,  retire 
from  it  after  this  brief  experience.  And  they  leave  to  return  to  a 
life  which  surrenders  for  the  present  the  higher  Buddhist  goal, 
without  any  reproach.  “Is  retirement  from  the  brotherhood  pos- 
sible after  admission?”  asks  the  Buddhist  Catechi.sm.  Answer, 
“At  any  time.  Neither  the  Buddhist  doctrine  nor  the  regulations 
of  the  brotherhood  know  ‘eternal’  vows  or  coercion.  He  who 
longs  for  the  pleasures  of  the  world  may  confess  his  weakness 
to  the  elder.  The  brotherhood  does  not  restrain  him,  and  retire- 
ment is  lawfully  ])ermitted  to  him,  without  incurring  thereby 
any  disgrace  or  oj)im)brium.”  The  highest  spiritual  character 
is,  in  the  Buddhi.st  view,  entirely  optional.  IIow  could  it  be 
otherwise  in  a religion  which  has  no  conception  of  po.sitive  duty, 
nor  of  a will  of  God  to  which  to  refer  it?  And  if  men  do  not 
choo.se  the  highest  there  is  no  reproach  attached  to  the  refinsal. 
That  which  seems  to  us  fundamentally  and  utterly  irreligious, 
may  be  to  the  Buddhist,  accordingly,  i)erfectly  good  religion. 
The  only  way  to  attain  Nirvana  is  to  follow  the  Noble  Eightfold 
Path,  and  the  only  j)racticable  way  to  follow  the  Noble  Eightfold 
Path  is  to  join  tlie  brotlierliood  and  devote  all  one’s  energies  to 
the  attainment  of  tlie  goal,  renouncing  tlie  world  and  its  illusory 
enjoyment.s.  Of  course,  if  all  men  did  this  all  men  would  starve 
and  liuman  life  would  become  an  im])ossibility.  To  escape  the 
ab.snrdity,  accordingly,  of  recpiiring  all  men  to  do  what  all  men 
cannot  do.  Buddhism  goes  to  the  extreme  of  the  other  absurdity 
of  recognizing  that  it  is  entirely  ])ro]>er  and  religious  for  any  one 
who  does  not  wi.sh  to  do  so  not  to  renounce  the  world  and  its 
illusory  enjoyments.  The  utter  ethical  anaemia  and  intellectual 
.stupor,  the  wiping  out  of  moral  landmarks,  the  very  disaj)pear- 
ance  out  of  the  sky  of  the  j)olur  .stars  of  truth,  the  melting  down 
of  everything  positive,  distinctive,  rationally  affirmative,  i)roduce 
a situation  whose  difiiculties  are  as  obvious  as  they  are  i)aralyzing. 

Hitherto  Buddhism  has  opj)o.sed  Christianity  only  by  its  leth- 
arg}’  and  indilference.  Its  spirit  of  tolerance,  sj)ringing  from  its 
character  of  nothing-matters-enough-to-be-of-any-consequence  has 
made  it  at  timt*s  (piite  hosj>itable  and  friendly.  It  has  not  met 
Christianity  as  anything  stiff  or  definitive,  as  a located  reality, 
but  as  something  multiple,  diffusive,  comprehensive, — a sub- 
stance, but  volatile  and  undifferentiated.  There  seemed  to  be 
general  agreement  that  the  priests  in  northern  Siam  were  more 
earnest,  thoughtful,  and  oj)en  to  serious  religious  discussiou  than 

89 


the  priests  in  the  south.  Some  of  the  strongest  preachers  in  the 
North  Siam  Mission  today  were  once  in  the  j^riesthood.  And 
Nan  Luang,  of  Chieng  Mai,  who  is  in  charge  of  the  chaf>el  in  the 
city,  was  once  the  leading  Buddhist  priest  of  the  district.  We 
asked  in  different  places  for  the  o])inion  of  mis.sionaries  and 
native  Chri.stians  regarding  the  attitude  of  Buddhism  and  any 
changes  which  the}'  had  noticed dn  it.  At  Petchaburi  it  was  said, 
‘‘In  this  country  Buddhism  is  no  true  Buddhism  at  all.  People 
believe  in  providence,  in  the  reality  of  the  soul,  and  they  think 
of  Nirvana  as  heaven.  In  the  cities  many  Buddhists  are  simple 
agnostics.  There  are  comparatively  few  men  in  or  out  of  the 
priesthood  who  have  a clear  and  intelligent  Buddhist  faith. 
Buddhism  is  essentially  a philo.sophy  of  life,  but  the  people  here 
have  never  thought  it  out.  I often  go  to  the  wats  to  jireach.  The 
priests  now  know  a good  deal  about  Christianity  and  are  begin- 
ning to  antagonize  and  argue  against  it.  I should  .say  that  the 
name  of  Jesus  Christ  was  known  in  every  wat  in  this  region, 
and  I ob.serve  an  increased  amount  of  Christianity  in  the  teach- 
ing of  the  priests  who  are  beginning  now  to  talk  of  a Heavenly 
Father  and  a Holy  Spirit.”  At  Prae  the  native  evangelists  said 
that  they  thought  the  attitude  of  i)rie.sts  now  was  more  friendly 
than  ever,  and  that  they  did  not  meet  with  as  much  oppo.sitiou  in 
talking  with  prie.sts,  who  accepted  Bibles  now,  if  offered  them, 
more  freely  than  in  the  j)ast.  The  opposition  now  was  from 
others.  In  this  section  of  Siam,  the}’  .said,  there  were  fewer 
priests  than  formerly,  but  where  iu  the  old  days  there  were  ten 
in  a monastery  there  were  one  or  two  now,  and  that  some  wats 
had  been  abandoned.  Some  of  the  evangelists  came  from  a village 
which  u.sed  to  have  many  priests  where  now  they  had  to  borrow 
one  from  another  village.  The  spread  of  new  ideas  was  relaxing 
the  hold  of  Buddhism.  At  Chieng  Mai  the  native  leaders  agreed 
that  there  was  much  more  knowledge  of  Christianity  among  the 
priests  now  than  before,  that  the  head  men  of  the  villages  and 
the  priests  would  usually  admit  that  Christianty  was  a good  and 
true  religion.  Buddhism,  they  thought,  was  a diminishing  in- 
fluence. Mr.  Freeman  asked  them  whether  it  was  not  true  that 
more  temples  were  building  in  their  part  of  Siam  and  more  men 
entering  the  monasteries  than  before.  Perhaps  that  was  true, 
they  said,  but  they  added,  the  people  explained  it  by  saying,  ‘‘Let 
us  hold  more  flrnily  what  we  do  hold  luitil  we  cease  to  hold  it.” 
Those  who  were  sincere,  they  thought,  were  more  zealous  because 
they  saw  that  their  religion  was  nearing  its  end.  At  the  same 
time  they  recollected  that  in  one  temple  shortly  before,  slander- 
ous accu.satious  had  been  put  out  against  Christians,  and  that 
there  were  many  priests  who,  knowing  more,  were  the  better  able 
and  the  more  eager  to  resist.  In  Pitsanuloke  it  was  said  that 
there  appeared  to  be  a general  stiffening  of  attitude  Throughout 
the  temples  against  Christianity,  and  that  there  seemed  to  be 
concerted  movement  in  the  matter  due  to  some  exercise  of  higher 
authority. 


90 


3.  Whatever  may  be  said  of  any  change  of  attitude  on  the 
part  of  the  priests,  it  is  undeniable  that  there  has  been  a change 
of  political  attitude.  lu  the  old  days,  what' Mr.  Hamilton  King, 
for  many  years  American  Minister  to  Siam,  said  some  years 
before  his  death  of  a visit  to  the  island  of  Samui  with  Dr.  Dun- 
lap, was  time:  “From  the  first  the  head  man  or  Amphur  of  the 
island  was  our  friend.  He  assisted  in  getting  the  people  together 
in  the  meetings  and  sat  an  interested  listener  to  the  words  of 
truth.  Although  a Buddhist  himself  he  encouraged  the  people  to 
hear  the  truth,  and  said  he  desired  with  them  to  learn  the  best. 
And  let  me  say  right  here,  this  is  the  attitude  of  Buddhistic  Siam 
throughout,  from  the  King  upon  the  throne  to  the  most  humble 
coolie,  the  priest  in  the  temples  and  the  officials  of  the  govern- 
ment; among  all  and  under  all  circumstances  I have  yet  to  hear 
the  first  word  of  ridicule  or  opposition  as  touching  the  teachings 
of  Christianity;  and  my  verdict  is  the  verdict  of  all  our  mission- 
aries in  the  work.  The  Siamese  people  are  an  open-minded  peo- 
ple, and  the  King  of  Siam  and  his  government  are  the  most  tol- 
erant of  religious  teachings  of  any  llnler  and  any  government  of 
which  I liave  lieard ; nor  will  I e.xcept  America.  If  this  is  Budd- 
hism it  wei-e  well  that  we  note  the  fact.”  As  already  pointed 
out,  there  lias  been  a very  distinct  change  in  This  matter.  The 
comiireheiisive  and  neutral  attitude  of  the  late  King  has  been 
succeeded  by  a jiositive  pro-Binblhisf,  anti-Christian  attitude. 
There  is,  of  conrse,  no  oiien  ])ersecntion,  but  there  is  a strong 
and  increasing  jiressiire  against  (’hristianity  and  in  behalf  of 
Buddhism.  The  Cregorian  era  adojited  by  the  late  King  in  1889 
has  been  annulled  and  the  Buddhist  calendar  takes  its  place,  so 
that  the  current  year  in  Siam  is  not  1915  Anno  Domini  bnt  2457 
Buddhist  era,  the  year  beginning  on  Ajiril  first.  In  one  sense 
the  new  calendar  ni(*rely  snbslilut(‘s  the  Buddhist  era  for  the 
Bangkok  era,  which  began  with  the  establishment  of  the  present 
d^'iiasty  in  17(iS,  bnt  j»o|)nlarly  it  is  regai-ded  as  one  step  in  the 
official  recognition  and  jirojiagation  of  Buddhism  as  the  national 
religion.  Sunday,  however,  is  still  retained  as  the  weekly  official 
holiday,  and  that  retention  in  some  parts  of  the  land  is  regarded 
as  a recognition  of  the  ultimate  accejitance  of  Christianity.  In 
some  jmninces  still,  however,  it  is  the  Buddhist  holidays  and 
not  Sunday  which  are  made  the  days  for  closing  the  schools  and 
the  public  offices. 

In  describing  the  j)resent  political  environment  of  missions  in 
Siam  a number  of  facts  have  been  given  to  illustrate  the  present 
official  activity  in  behalf  of  Buddhism.  In  the  references  which 
are  made  to  Christianity  the  most  frerpient  objection  naturally 
growing  out  of  the  enij)hasis  ni)on  Buddhism  as  a unifying  na- 
tional tradition  is  the  declaration  that  Christianity  is  a"  foreign 
religion  and  that  the  Siame.se  ought  not  to  be  imitators  but  are 
bound  loyally  to  adhere  to  their  own  national  faith.  The  repub- 
lican ui)heaval  in  China  and  a foolish  and  wicked  plot  against 
the  life  of  the  King  of  Siam  at  about  the  same  time  gave  added 

91 


force  to  the  prejudice  against  the  innovation  of  foreign  ideals.  In 
one  of  the  letters  in  the  “Observer,”  wliicli  are  full  of  gofKi  sense 
and  sound  advice,  Asvabahu  closes  thus  his  essay  on  the  cult  of 
imitation:  “Think  of  it,  iny  countrymen  I It  is  distinctly  to  your 
own  interests  to  imitate  our  own  ancestors,  rather  than  allow 
jmurselves  to  be  led  astray  by  j)eople  who  are  themselves  noth- 
ing but  mere  untbinking  imitator.s,  aping  European  ways  and 
calling  theni.selves  ‘j)oliticians.’  Such  peoj)le  have  set  back  the 
progress  of  China  by  at  least  a century  already  I Seeing  what 
imitation  has  already  done  for  China,  let  us  be  wise  and  try  To 
work  for  our  National  Trogress  by  means  best  suited  to  our 
present-day  needs,  rather  than  hanker  after  things  for  which  the 
majority  of  our  people  are  not  ready.  Each  one  of  us  can  help 
by  doing  each  his  own  duty  in  our  owu  sphere,  instead  of  striv- 
ing to  make  ourselves  imitation  Europeans!  Brother  Thai,  be 
true  to  your  name!  Be  real  Thai,  and  you  cannot  go  wrong! 
This  is  the  New  Year’s  message  from  your  friend  Asvabahu.” 

Among  the  old  things  which  are  to  be  kept  and  on  no  account 
to  be  surrendered  for  anything  imported,  it  is  urged,  and  we 
mui^t  admit,  naturally  and  appropriately,  that  the  religion  of  the 
fathers  should  be  kept  as  the  religion  of  the  children.  This  idea 
has  gone  out  through  the  country  into  remote  j>laces.  as  a story 
told  by  Dr.  Peoples  will  illu.strate.  The  story  illustrates  al.so  the 
readiness  of  the  native  evangelists  to  meet  the  objection.  “Nan 
Punjm,  of  Ban  Some,  and  his  companion,  was  on  his  way  uf)  into 
the  northern  district  of  the  Province.  About  half-way  up.  at  a 
village  in  See  Phome,  he  came  across  the  Amphur  (Bulerl  of 
the  distinct,  who  called  ui)on  him  to  show  his  tax  receipt  which 
answers  as  a passport,  rnfortunately  he  had  left  it  with  another 
companion  on  a former  trip,  and  could  not  produce  it.  The 
official  told  him  he  would  have  to  send  him  back  to  the  city  in 
the  care  of  a gendarme  to  report  him  there.  Nan  Punya  rejilieil. 
A'ery  well,  your  honor,  but  will  you  let  the  gendarme  take  me 
on  up  to  Chieng  Khan  first  and  then  down  ? I am  sent  by  the 
Pau  Liang  (the  Doctor)  to  call  a man  down  to  see  him,  and  if  I 
have  to  go  to  the  city  first  my  message  will  not  be  in  time  for 
the  purpose.’  ‘What  does  the  Pau  Liang  want  the  man  for?’ 
‘He  wants  him  to  go  to  Chieng  Mai  to  attend  Presbytery.’  “What 
is  that?’  ‘Your  honoi‘,  it  is  a conference  about  the  Christian  re- 
ligion.’ ‘Do  the  Christians  in  Nan  have  anything  to  do  with  the 
Christians  in  Chieng  !Mai?’  ‘Y'es,  A'our  honor,  it  is  all  one  com- 
pany.’ ‘What  do  you  teach?’  ‘About  God  and  the  way  of  Life.’ 
‘Why  did  30U  leave  the  Buddhist  religion  and  take  up  with  the 
Christian  religion?’  ‘Because  the  Buddhist  does  not  tench  of  a 
God,  and  I think  there  must  be  a God.’  ‘Wh^-  should  a’ou  have 
anj'thiug  to  do  with  a religion  of  the  foreigners?’  ‘I  do  not  see 
why  3'our  honor  should  saA’  that.  The  Founder  of  the  Christian 
religion  was  boi'n  in  our  Continent.  The  i‘eligion  be 
gan  in  our  Continent.  The  name  of  the  Founder  is  a 
Pali  word,  formed  from  two  Pali  roots  (Y’asu)  which  mean 

92 


Savior  of  All.  The  white  man  learned  of  the  Christian  religion 
and  then  he  comes  to  teach  us.  But  if  you  speak  of  the  origin 
of  the  religion,  it  is  really  our  religion  and  not  his.  Almost 
every  best  thing  that  we  have  comes  from  the  White  Man’s  Land, 
so  their  life  must  be  wider  than  ours.’  ‘How  did  you  come  to 
know  anything  about  the  Christian  religion  ?’  ‘Some  years  ago 
I went  to  school  up  at  Chieng  Khan  and  the  teacher  was  a Chris- 
tian, I learned  something  of  it  there,  and  then  I stiidied.  I used 
to  hate  it,  your  honor.’  A little  after  the  conversation  clo.sed, 
he  asked  the  official  if  he  might  have  the  gendarme  take  him  up  to 
Chieng  Khan  first.  ‘Xo,’  he  replied,  ‘you  go  along.  Yoia  do  not 
need  a gendarme.’  ” 

Xan  Punya  might  have  added  several  other  points.  He  might 
have  called  attention  to  the  enlightened  policy  of  the  King  in 
seeking  what  was  good  and  true  no  matter  where  it  might  be 
found.  He  might  have  pointed  out  that  the  King  had  gone  to 
England  for  liis  education,  that  he  was  introducing  railroads 
built  by  foreign  engineers  of  foreign  material,  that  he  was  fin- 
ishing an  elaborate  and  expensive  palace  built  by  a foreign  archi- 
tect in  foreign  style  and  decorated  by  a foreign  j)ainter.  He 
might  have  added  that  the  Thai  Dyna.sty  itself  was  a foreign 
DATiasty,  that  the  Thai  people  were  foreigners  who  had  come  to 
live  in  Siam,  that  Buddhism  was  not  their  ancient  religion  but  had 
been  brought  to  Siam  in  the  seventh  century  of  the  Christian  era, 
twelve  hundi-ed  years  after  it  had  originated,  that  in  a land 
where  so  many  changes  for  the  better  had  been  made  by  its  in- 
telligent rulers  and  i)eople  who  had  again  and  again  abandoned 
the  old  to  adoi)t  the  new  it  would  be  foolish  to  go  oil  imitating 
the  outward  wa^-s  of  western  nations,  and  not  to  take  into  the 
heart  of  the  nation  that  which  lay  at  the  back  of  all  that  is  great 
and  good  in  the  West,  and  which,  belonging  to  Siam  as  much  as 
it  does  to  any  other  people,  should  not  be  surrendered.  Sooner 
or  later  Siam  will  .see  this.  Perhaps  it  is  best  that  the  common 
people  should  .see  it  first  and  that  Christianity  should  secure  its 
rootage  uncomplicated  by  official  favor.  It  is  certain,  howevei*, 
that  the  official  disfavor  which  is  now  recognizcnl  throughout  the 
country  will  make  the  task  difficult  unless  the  heroic  spirit  can 
be  evoked.  And  that  .spirit  is  the  supreme  need  today  alike  of 
Siam  and  of  the  Christian  Church  in  Siam. 

IV.  Goveniment  Educntioii  in  Einm.  In  the  past  education 
has  been  in  the  hands  of  the  Buddhist  priesthood  and  the  wats 
have  been  the  schools.  X"ow  the  government  is  taking  education 
under  its  control.  It  is  using  the  wats  in  many  jtlaces  still  as 
the  meeting  places  of  the  school.s,  but  is  removing  the  schools 
entirely  from  the  control  of  the  temples  and  the  priests.  As  yet 
the  goveiTiment  system  of  education  is  not  very  widely  extended 
and  its  resources  are  inadequate,  but  earnest  men  are  in  charge 
of  it  and  what  we  see  now  is  only  a beginning  of  an  elaborate 
system  which  its  administrators  are  seeking  from  the  outset  to 
adapt  wisely  to  the  needs  of  the  nation.  Mr.  Harris,  the  president 

93 


of  Prince  Royal’s  College,  our  missionaiy  school  for  boys  in 
Chieng  Mai,  gave  ns  the  following  summary  of  the  government 
system : 

“The  government  course  of  study  is  divided  as  follows: 

“Pratome,  3 years, — primaiy  school  work. 

“Pratome,  2 years, — industrial  work. 

“Matayome,  8 years. 

“The  two  years’  industrial  work  is,  I understand,  at  present, 
optional  for  boys  who  wish  to  go  on  through  the  Matayome 
course;  and  this  industrial  course  will  l>e  given  in  only  a limited 
number  of  government  schools. 

“The  Matayome  course  carries  boys  into  work  done  in  many 
American  colleges  in  Freshman  and  Sophomore  years.  The  final 
examination  is  considered  as  stiff  as  the  ‘London  Matriculation,’ 
and  much  stiffer  than  the  Oxford  ‘Little  Oo’. 

“The  later  years  of  the  Matayome  offer  two  courses, — (1) 
Humanities, — English,  French,  History,  San.scrit,  Logic,  Psych- 
ology, etc.  (II)  Sciences, — Algebra,  Trigonometry,  Physics, 
Chemistry,  Biologj',  etc. 

“The  scheme  involves  the  matriculation  of  the  student  at  the 
age  of  seven,  and  the  completion  of  his  Arts  course, — or  Science 
cour.se — at  the  age  of  18  years. 

“At  the  age  of  18  all  boys  who  are  fit  are  drafted  into  the 
Army  for  a service  of  2 years,  after  which  they  are  enrolled  in 
the  Reserve.  The  head  of  the  Army  has  voluntarily  promised  me 
that  all  my  students  who  pass  satisfactory  examiuation.s,  say 
from  Matayome  third  year  up — will  not  be  required  to  serve  in 
the  ranks,  but  will  be  given  an  opi>ortnnity  of  becoming  petty 
officers  almost  immediately  upon  their  entry  into  the  Army. 

“At  the  completion  of  the  two-years’  compulsory  Army  service, 
boys,  presumably  20  or  21  years  of  age  (but  in  North  Siam  often 
a year  or  so  older)  may  then  turn  their  attention  to  the  pursuit 
of  a professional  education.  This  means  Law,  Medicine,  and,  I 
believe.  Engineering.  The  only  professional  schools,  except  our 
Theological  Seminary  to  date,  are  in  Bangkok,  and  are  govern- 
ment schools. 

“Boys  wishing  to  qualify  as  government  teachers  may  matricu- 
late in  the  Government  Teachers’  College  in  Bangkok;  and  they 
and  all  teachers  are  exempt  from  Anny  service. 

“The  government  course  involves  a large  amount  of  English. 
A large  number  of  the  leading  Siamese  officials  in  the  Education 
Department  were  educated  in  England.  English  is  therefore  a 
required,  not  an  elective,  to  a certain  point ; beyond  that  it  is  an 
elective. 

“We  put  English  into  our  course  earlier  than  the  government, 
because  we  believe  we  thus  get  better  results. 

“The  government  books  are,  many  if  not  most  of  them,  ex- 
cellent. 

“The  government  leaves  us  free  to  introduce  as  much  Christian 
teaching  into  our  curriculum  as  we  wish.” 

94 


It  has  become  evident  to  the  Siamese  authorities  that  it  is  a 
mistake  to  offer  only  or  too  exclusively  a literary  or  general  edu- 
cational course  ending  in  the  university.  In  a country  like  Siam 
especially,  a much  larger  provision  must  be  made  for  technical  or 
industrial  training,  fitting  students  directly  for  trade,  for  home 
industry,  or  for  agriculhire.  A new  plan  has  accordingly  been 
promulgated  which  contemplates  at  the  base  a primary  school 
course  of  three  or  five  years,  and  on  top  of  this  two  alternative 
parallel  courses  of  secondary  education,  one  a technical  or  in- 
dustrial course  in  three  schools,  lower,  middle  and  higher,  the 
other  a general  course  in  three  schools,  lower,  middle,  and  final. 
From  the  final  school  pupils  may  go  out  into  life  or  cross  into 
the  graduate  departments  of  the  university.  From  the  middle 
general  school  they  may  cross  into  the  undergradute  department 
of  the  university  or  into  the  higher  secondary  technical  school; 
from  the  lower  secondar\’  general  school  they  may  cross  into  the 
middle  secondaiw  technical  school.  The  profes.sional  schools  in 
the  university  are  eight  in  number.  There  is  no  crossing  from 
the  secondary  technical  schools,  once  they  have  been  entered,  to 
the  other  schools. 

The  course  of  instruction  for  primary  and  secondary  schools 
issued  by  the  Minister  of  Public  Instruction  seems  to  be  a very 
sensible  and  practical  course.  The  aims  to  be  kept  in  mind  in 
the  teaching  of  various  primary  school  subjects  will  show  the 
.spirit  of  the  Mini.strv'  of  Instruction. 

“Subject,  Moral  Instruction.  Aim,  to  train  the  scholar  to  good 
habits  and  conduct  so  that  he  may  become  a good  and  useful 
citizen  and  be  able  to  earn  a living  in  a way  .suited  to  him;  such 
training  to  be  practical  ajul  to  be  judged  only  by  its  actual  in- 
fluence on  the  boy’s  behavior. 

“Subject,  Siamese  Language.  Aim,  to  be  able  to  read,  write 
and  express  himself  clearly  botli  in  speech  and  writing.  To  cul- 
tivate a taste  for  reading  and  a desire  for  the  knowledge  to  which 
reading  is  the  key. 

“Subject,  Hygiene.  Aim,  to  teach  the  scholar  the  need  of 
keeping  both  mind  and  body  healthy.  It  is  not  enough  merely 
to  impart  the  knowledge:  .scholars  sliould  be  taught  from  the  be- 
ginning to  put  their  knowledge  info  practice  iTi  their  own  persons. 

“Subject,  Vocational  Instnicf ion.  Aim,  to  enable  tlie  scholar 
on  leaving  .school  1o  take  uj»  work  of  one  kind  or  another  accord- 
ing to  his  bent  and  to  the  locality  he  lives  in.  If  in  skilled  labour 
he  should  begin  to  learn  in  school.  If  in  unskilled  manual  labour 
(e.  g.,  gardening)  then  a liking  for  that  career  should  be  fostered 
and  some  instruction  given  so  that  on  leaving  school  he  may  be 
able  to  take  up  the  work  intelligently  and  with  interest.  If  on 
the  other  hand  the  scholars  live  in  a commercial  centre  then  they 
should  receive  the  elements  of  a commercial  training.” 

As  already  indicated  elsewhere,  the  precepts  of  the  Buddhist 
faith  are  to  be  instilled  into  the  minds  of  scholars  in  the  primary 
courses,  and  it  is  specified  that  “time  should  be  found  for  occas- 

95 


ional  practice  in  the  singing?  of  the  ^sational  Anthem,  forms  of 
prayer  suited  to  various  oc<-asions,  etc.”  In  the  instructions  re- 
gardinf?  the  secondarj'  course  thei-e  is  no  mention  of  religion  or  of 
prayers,  but  time  is  found  for  these  and,  under  the  present  regime, 
attention  is  carefully  given  to  occasional  school  as.semblies  and 
the  singing  together  of  the  same  Buddhist  prayers  which  are 
sung  in  barracks,  police  .stations  and  generally  now  in  govern- 
ment institutions.  Images  of  Buddha  also  are  to  be  found  in 
many  of  the  schools,  and  we  saw  small  images  placefl  on  high 
brackets  even  in  the  T'niversity  Medical  School.  These  Buddhist 
rites  in  the  government  .schools  constitute  a diffic  ult  problem  for 
the  Chri.stian.s.  The  Japanese  government  has  made  it  very 
ea.sy  for  Christians  in  the  schools  in  Japan  and  Korea  in  com- 
parison with  the  situation  of  the  Siamese  Christians.  Shall 
Christian  students  withdraw  and  forego  in  many  cases  the  only 
opportunities  presented,  or  shall  they  make  an  issue  by  refu.sing, 
or  shall  they  conform  just  as  far  as  they  are  required  outwardly 
to  do  so?  It  is  not  an  easy  problem.  Buddhi.st  girls  who  come 
to  our  mission  schools  are  recpiired  to  attend  the  religious  ser- 
vices and  to  receive  the  religious  instruction.  It  is  true,  of 
course,  that  they  come  of  their  own  accord,  and  with  a clear 
understanding  in  advance  that  these  are  the  requirements  of  the 
school.  But  the  government  might  reply  that  BuddhisTii  was 
the  established  religion  of  the  countiw.  and  that  while  Chris- 
tians were  entirely  free  not  to  attend  government  schools,  but 
to  go  to  schools  of  their  own,  so  long  as  they  came  to  govern- 
ment schools  they  must  conform.  It  is  to  be  hopefl.  however,  if 
the  matter  is  properly  presented  to  the  goveniment  that  it  will, 
with  the  friendliness  and  tolerance  it  lias  thus  far  shown.  l>e 
willing  to  exempt  (Tiristian  .stmlents  from  Buddhist  ceremonies 
which  they  cannot  conscientiously  perform. 

Primary  education  is  free,  but  all  education  almve  the  primary 
grade  require  fees  of  all  but  scholarship  pupils.  It  is  proposefl 
to  increase  the  school  revenues  by  an  enlargement  of  the  ]xill 
tax.  It  is  clear  that  they  should  be  increased  in  a measure  suf- 
ficient to  enable  the  state  to  pro^■ide  free  secondaiw  education 
also,  at  least  in  the  technical  grades,  otherwise  the  evil  from 
which  the  government  Avould  like  to  find  an  escape  would  be 
invited,  of  a large  class  which  has  received  a literary  education 
and  will  do  no  manual  woik,  while  the  great  body  of  the  nation 
will  remain  uneducated  or  with  only  a primary  scIkh)!  cour.se. 
A great  deal  of  work  needs  to  be  done  also  in  advancing  the 
grade  of  the  education  now  offere<I  as  well  as  in  extending  the 
number  of  schools.  The  Koyal  Prince  who  is  the  head  of  the 
Medical  School,  who  was  educated  in  Germany,  told  us  that  at 
present  the  education  pro\-ided  and  required  for  admission  to 
the  professional  schools  was  equal  in  efficiency  to  only  about 
one-half  of  the  work  of  the  German  gA*mnasium. 

There  are  at  present  under  the  Ministiw  of  Public  Instruction 
209  primaiw  schools,  with  18,101  scholars,  10,5  secondarA-  schools 

96 


with  6,782  scholars,  and  20  special  schools  with  543  scholars. 
This  does  not  include  the  local  and  private  schools  which,  if 
added  to  the  schools  above  enumerated  would  give  an  approxi- 
mate total  of  2,900  schools  of  all  grades  in  Siam,  with  95.000 
scholars.  The  professional  schools  are  not  as  yet  under  the  Min- 
istry of  Instruction,  and  these  schools,  embracing  the  Civil  Ser- 
vice and  Medical  College,  with  the  Law,  Naval,  Military,  En- 
gineering, and  other  schools,  have  2,815  pupils. 

English  is  a required  subject,  beginning  with  the  first  year  of 
the  secondars"  schools,  and  is  carried  through  all  eight  years  of 
the  secondary  school  course,  with  a view  to  enable  the  student 
“to  write  and  converse  in  English  with  increasing  fluency  and 
power  of  expression,  to  study  selected  works  of  English  stand- 
ard authors,  etc.”  It  is  probably  the  fact  that  our  mission 
schools  teach  more  English  and  teach  it  better  than  is  done  in 
the  government  schools.  This  has  enabled  them  to  hold  their 
own  and  in  .some  places  to  excell  the  goveimment  schools. 

Very  little  has  been  done  as  yet  by  the  government  for  the 
education  of  girls.  Tlie  old  wat  .schools  were  for  boys  alone.  The 
problem  of  women  teachers  has  been  a difficult  one  in  the  new 
schools.  As  a high  educational  authority  told  us  they  had  two 
troubles,  first,  that  the  women  teachers  were  likely  to  get  mar- 
ried and  leave,  although  the  government  was  willing  to  have 
them  marry  and  continue  teaching,  and  second,  that  many  of 
the  schools  were  still  held  in  the  wats  where  there  were  many 
young  priests,  and  that  although  the  young  priests  were  all  un- 
der .strict  vows,  the  situation  was  an  impossible  one  for  young 
women  teachers  unless  the  head  priest  was  a very  strong  man. 
Tie  added  that  the  educational  scheme  was  very  rudimentary  as 
yet,  that  most  pupils  dropped  out  along  the  course,  that  last 
year,  only  about  thirty  boys  actually  completed  the  full  secon- 
dar\'  course,  that  almost  all  of  these  had  gone  to  Europe  to 
study.  The  most  interesting  girls’  school  apart  from  the  mis- 
sionary institutions  is  Queen’s  College  presided  over  by  a cousin 
of  the  King,  a verj'  capable  woman  resembling  one  of  our  women 
college  presidents  at  home,  exceedingly  cordial  and  an  earnest 
Buddhist.  The  school  is  really  an  outgrowth  of  missionary  in- 
fluence. In  its  earlier  years  it  was  managed  by  foreign  women 
who  came  on  short  contracts,  but  the  plan  was  expensive  and 
ineffective  until  the  present  head  took  hold,  with  the  hearty 
.support  and  patronage  of  the  Queen  Mother.  The  school  is  now 
grown  to  311  pupils,  coming  from  the  best  families  in  Bangkok. 
The  girls  make  their  own  beds,  clean  the  halls,  help  in  the  dining 
room,  are  taught  to  cook.  There  are  from  five  to  fourteen  gradu- 
ates a year.  Some  of  them  remain  in  the  school  as  teachers 
while  others  go  back  to  their  homes  or  to  establish  homes  of 
their  o^\^l.  The  school  keeps  in  close  touch  with  its  alumnae 
who  return  for  school  festivals  and  specially  for  the  great  Budd- 
hist religious  days,  particularly  the  Buddhist  lent.  The  High 
Prie.st,  the  uncle  of  the  head  of  the  school,  comes  once  a year  to 

97 

4 — Report  of  Doputa-tlon. 


si)eak  to  the  girls.  His  pliotograj)h  and  the  i)hotogi-aphs  of  the 
pre.sent  King  and  his  fatlier.  and  two  statues  of  Buddha  were 
at  one  end  of  the  long  hall  of  the  sc-hool. 

V.  Qiicsthnfi  of  Evanffelization  and  thr  Xatire  Church.  Xo 
memories  of  the  mission  field  are  more  fragrant  than  those  of 
the  hours  of  fellowshii)  with  missionaries  in  their  own  homes 
or  on  the  long  jonnieys  between  stations  or  in  the  mission  con- 
ferences, when  the  conversation  was  all  about  the  vital  and  cen- 
tral business  of  missions,  the  making  of  ('hrist  known  to  men 
and  women.  In  these  conversations  hearts  are  oj)ened  and  one 
is  brought  in  contact  with  the  mi.ssionarv  pui^mse  in  its  purest 
form,  and  listens  to  story  after  story  of  individual  men  and 
women  to  whom  the  gosj)el  had  been  brought  and  who  through 
one  and  another  fa.scinating  experience  came  at  last  to  confess 
Christ.  Later  we  would  meet  these  men  and  women  and  hear 
their  stories  from  their  own  lips.  It  is  like  re-living  the  actual 
life  of  the  early  church  when  (’hristianity  first  began  to  push 
its  way  out  into  the  non-Christian  world.  To  have  these  joyful 
ex^ieriences  at  their  best  one  needs  to  go  to  the  out-of-the-way 
missions,  off  the  lines  of  world  travel  and  be  let  in,  as  we  have 
been,  to  the  joys  and  sorrows,  the  fulfillings  and  the  disa]»j)oint- 
ings  of  ho]>e.  of  our  mis.sionaries  in  Siam.  The  reality  of  the 
work  that  they  have  done,  their  faithfulness  and  ])atience  and 
devotion,  the  simple  faith  and  love  of  the  Christians  whom  we 
met,  are  o\ir  deepest  and  richest  memory  of  Siam,  and  we  would 
bear  tribute  to  the.se  before  turning  away  from  them  to  ques- 
tions of  policy  and  method.  We  saw  illustrated  in  Siam  in  the 
men  and  women  now  at  work  there  and  in  the  results  of  the 
toil  of  those  who  have  gone  before,  the  power  and  sure  fniitage 
of  hard,  tireless,  loving  work.  The  wisdom  of  appreciating  the 
native  people,  of  believing  in  their  capacities  and  resources,  and 
of  laying  responsibility  upon  them  and  the  sure  and  unha]>i>y 
consequences  of  the  contrary  error,  the  reward  that  comes  from 
under.standing  the  people,  and  mastering  the  language  and  the 
literature  of  the  native  religion,  the  blessing  that  always  flows 
from  kindliness  and  syiu])athy  and  generosity  of  judgment,  the 
sure  response  which  love  and  the  manifestation  of  Christ  in  life 
call  forth  in  human  hearts, — these  and  many  other  good  things 
like  them  one  may  see  in  the  missions  in  Siam.  But  one  sees 
also  s\ich  questions  as  have  been  set  down  in  our  letter  to  the 
Siam  missions  and  which  must  be  treated  a little  more  fully  for 
the  information  of  the  Board  and  the  consideration  of  the  mis- 
sions. 

We  came  to  Siam  nnder  the  impression  that  we  should  find  in 
force  the  policies  which  Dr.  Brown  found  on  his  visit  in  the 
winter  of  l!)01-02,  which  he  describes  in  the  following  sections  of 
his  report : 

“Siam  and  Laos  are  a splendid  illustration  of  the  feasibility  of 
self-support  when  the  missionaries  themselves  are  firm  and  wise  in 
pushing  it.  True,  the  people  are  not  so  poverty-stricken  as  in 

98 


Chiua,  India  and  Korea.  The  softnes.s  of  a tropical  climate  reduces 
wants,  so  that  less  expenditure  is  necessary  for  house,  clothing 
and  fuel,  while  the  comparative  sparseness  of  the  population  and 
the  exuberance  of  the  soil  make  it  easier  to  secure  necessary  food. 
Nor  is  money  scarce.  The  per  capita  wealth  of  Siam  and  Laos 
must  be  greater  than  that  of  most  other  Asaitic  countries,  if 
the  rather  superficial  observation  of  a traveler  can  be  trusted. 
At  any  rate,  the  peo])le  appear  to  have  plenty  to  eat,  and  they 
wear  more  gold  and  silver  ornaments  than  any  other  people  in 
Asia,  even  naked  urchins  tumbling  about  the  village  streets  being 
adorned  with  solid  silver  anklets,  wristlets,  necklaces  and  ‘fig 
leaves.’  Moreover,  Buddhi.sm  has  taught  the  people  to  give  large- 
ly for  the  support  of  religious  institutions.  The  land  literally 
teems  with  temples  and  j>riests,  and  while  old  ones  quickly  fall 
out  of  repair  in  this  land  of  heavy  rains,  intense  heat  and  swarm- 
ing in.sects,  new  ones  are  constantly  being  erected.  There  is 
great  ‘merit’  in  bnilding  a new  temple  or  rest  house,  but  none  in 
repairing  one  that  some  one  else  has  built,  which  accounts  for 
the  number  of  crumbling  temi)les,  and  also  for  the  many  new 
ones  which  are  .springing  up  ou  every  side.  For  these  reasons 
Dr.  Eakin  says  that  the  i)roblem  of  ])overty  may  be  eliminated 
from  the  situation  in  Siam.  The  people  are  able  to  give. 

“But  it  would  be  an  error  to  assume  tliat  it  is  therefore  easy 
to  lead  them  to  self-su])j»ort.  In  every  other  mission  field  the 
people  j)ay  far  more  to  supjtorf  heathenism  than  they  are  asked 
to  j)ay  to  .snj)port  Chri.stianity.  The  gos])el  makes  no  such  fin- 
ancial demands  upon  converts  in  China  and  India  as  the  other 
faiths  make.  Beside.s,  self-suj)])ort  is  more  a matter  of  proportion 
than  of  amount.  If  the  average  Christian  in  India  lives  on  less 
than  the  average  (fiiristian  in  Siam  and  Laos,  his  minister  can 
live  on  less.  If  each  family  gives  a twentieth,  twenty  families 
will  give  an  average  sui)j)ort,  no  matter  what  the  scale  may  be. 
Moreover,  the  hardest  j)roblem  everywhere  is  not  ability,  but 
disposition.  American  Christians  could  (juadruple  their  foreign 
mi.ssionary  gifts  if  they  would.  Probably  the  average  income  of 
the  San  Francisco  Chinese  is  larger  than  that  of  any  other  body 
of  Asiatic  Christians  in  the  world,  but  it  is  as  difficult  to  induce 
them  to  ])ay  their  minister’s  salary  as  it  is  in  India.  The  world 
over,  j>eoj)le  like  to  be  su])por1ed  by  some  one  else  and  to  do  as 
they  |>lease  with  their  own  money.  This  genei'al  disposition  in 
Siam  and  Laos  is  intensified  by  the  easy-going  life  of  the  coun- 
try, the  lack  of  thrift  and  energy,  the  feeling  that  Christianity 
is  a foreign  religion,  and  ])articnlarly  by  the  fact  that  for  many 
years  it  was  wholly  sup])orted  by  foreigners.  In  the  old  days 
native  helpers  were  as  freely  employed,  medicines  as  freely  given 
away,  scholars  as  freely  e<lucated  as  in  some  other  mission  fields, 
until  the  Siamese  and  Laos  Christians  came  to  expect  foreign 
STipport,  to  accei>t  it  as  a right  and  to  feel  aggrieved  if  they  did 
not  get  it.  When,  therefore,  the  missions  began  to  apply  the 
new  principle  of  self-support,  they  encountered  as  discouraging 

99 


conditions  as  could  be  found  anywhere.  Many  converts  fell 
away  altogether,  others  became  sullen,  and  in  some  places,  not- 
ably Petchaburi,  the  whole  work  of  years  had  to  be  virtually  dis- 
banded and  reconstructed  from  the  foundations. . . . 

“The  evangelistic  work  of  the  Siam  and  Laos  Missions  affords 
an  even  better  illustration  of  self-support  than  the  medical,  for 
it  cannot  rely  upon  the  motive  of  evident  physical  suffering  to 
pay  fees.  Yet  in  Siam  the  entire  evangelistic  work  is  .self-sup- 
porting, except,  of  course,  the  itinerating  expenses  of  the  foreign 
mission  a rie.s.  Not  a single  native  helper  is  employed  at  mission 
expen.se,  all  helpers,  including  the  pastor  of  the  First  Church  of 
Bangkok,  being  supported  by  the  people.  Not  only  this,  but  as 
I have  already  exj»lained,  the  new  church  iu  the  central  part  of 
the  city  is  to  be  paid  for,  land  and  building,  by  the  Siamese 
themselve.s,  and  while  it  is  true  that  one  man  is  to  give  most  of 
the  money,  he  is  a Siame.se,  and  the  other  Christians  are  to  give 
all  they  are  able. . . . 

“Tn  Laos,  also,  the  evangelistic  work  is  virtually  self-.support- 
ing,  fhe  groups  and  churches  everywhere  paying  for  their  own 
preaching.  At  the  annual  mis.sion  meeting  for  1897,  the  follow- 
ing resolution  was  unanimously  adopted : ‘Besolved,  That  the 
mission  request  the  Board  for  uo  appropriation  for  native  min- 
isters, licentiates,  Bible  women  and  Sabbath-schools  for  th^  com- 
ing year.’  This  wa.s,  perhaps,  an  extreme  position,  but  the  mis- 
.sion has  held  to  it,  not  literally  but  in  spirit.  At  this  time, 
only  two  helpers  are  em])loyed  at  mission  expense,  and  they  are 
used  solely  for  evangelistic  work  among  the  heathen,  usually  with 
au  accompanying  missionary.  Most  of  the  native  helpers,  how- 
ever, even  for  this  work,  are  paid  by  the  Christians  themselves. 
The  Brae  Church,  for  exaiu])le,  gave  10  ruj)ees  for  the  work  among 
the  Ka-Mooks,  and  10  for  work  in  Chieng  Toong,  beside  paying 
its  own  expenses  and  giving  10  rupees  to  the  church  .school.  The 
Chieng  Mai  Church  is  justly  famous  for  both  self-support  and 
self-propagation.  It  has  sent  out  several  colonies,  maintains 
evangelists  in  various  places  aud  liberally  fosters  every  good 
work.  In  the  Presbyterian  conference  at  Lakawn  during  my 
visit  one  of  the  Lakawn  elders  said  to  his  fellow  Christians: 
‘To  whom  are  we  Laos  peojile  indebted  for  the  knowledge  of  the 
gospel?  To  American  Christians.  'Who  must  evangelize  the 
rest  of  tlie  Laos  people  and  the  mountain  tribes?  We  must  do 
it,  not  de])ending  upon  American  men  or  money.  Why  should 
we  hoard  our  money?  Many  say  they  wish  to  leave  it  to  their 
children.  But  often  it  is  a curse  to  tho.se  children,  not  a bless- 
ing. Let  us  freely  give  it  to  the  spread  of  the  go.spel.’ 

‘‘What  a fine  example  for  some  of  our  home  elders  is  given 
by  the  Laos  elders  of  Muang  Toong,  an  out-station  of  Chieng 
Eai.  Dr.  Briggs  thus  de.scribes  it:  ‘Two  were  sent  by  the  church 
at  three  differeut  times  and  spent  from  four  to  six  weeks  each 
time.  The  Chieng  Eai  Church  has  bought  for  100  rupees  a teak 
house  iu  the  most  important  Christian  village,  a rice  field,  rice 

100 


bin  and  some  loose  lumber,  and  proposes  to  send  one  of  its  elders 
to  live  there.  He  is  to  have  the  privilege  of  farming  the  rice 
field,  and  occupying  such  parts  of  the  hon.se  as  are  not  needed 
for  a chapel.  He  is  to  receive  no  wages,  unless  hired  by  the 
clinrch  to  do  evangelistic  work  at  .some  distance  from  his  village. 
In  other  words,  he  will  be  on  the  same  basis  as  every  other  elder 
in  the  church  except  that  house  and  fields  are  provided  for  his 
n.se:  and  for  this  he  is  to  be  practically  the  pastor  of  disciples 
in  that  district.’  Dr.  Briggs  continne.s,  ‘We  attempt  to  put 
practically  the  whole  burden  of  .shepherding  the  sheep  upon  the 
Laos  elders;  and  the  burden  of  evangelization  upon  them  and 
eveiw  soul  that  receives  the  sealing  rite  of  baptism.  We  are  not 
theorizing;  we  are  (piietly  putting  onr  convictions  of  right 
method  to  the  test.  Thus  far,  we  are  abundantly  encouraged, 
and  have  great  can.^^e  for  gratitude  to  God.  The  Church  in 
America  is  not  asked  to  support  any  feature  of  the  work  in  Laos 
tliat  the  native  clinrch  tliere  can  justly  be  expected  to  support 
at  this  stage  of  its  develojuuent.  Alore  Ilian  that,  the  native  Laos 
Church  is  undertaking  active  work  in  the  regions  beyond.  A 
.small,  struggling  church  of  fifty  menibers  (which  has  just  fin- 
ished building  a neat,  cozy  chaiiel  without  any  outside  help) 
has  contributed  two  months’  support  of  a Laos  minister  to 
jireach  the  go.spel  in  French  Laos  teri'itoi-v.  \vhere  for  the  present 
the  missionaries  are  encouraged  by  French  ollicials  not  to  go. 
A small  Christian  Endeavor  Society  in  Laos  is  assuming  prac- 
tical sup])ort  of  an  evangelist  at  work  in  the  French  Laos  field. 
A Woman’s  Foreign  Missionary  Society  of  fifteen  niember.s,  gave 
out  of  their  jioverty  .*>0  rupees  in  one  year,  siitficient  to  jiay  the 
expenses  of  a native  minister  for  two  months  in  evangelistic 
work.’ 

“In  this  connection,  it  should  be  noted  that  the  two  youngest 
stations  of  the  Siam  Mission  have  been  self-supporting  from  the 
beginning.  Not  only  hel](ers  and  teachers,  but  land,  school,  hos- 
pital and  church  buildings  and  all  their  running  expenses  have 
been  provided  without  a dollar’s  exjieiise  to  the  Board,  whose 
aiipropriations  have  be<Mi  solely  for  niissionaiw  sujijiort  and  resi- 
dence. Mr.  Eckles  says  of  Nakawn ; ‘We  have  not  exalted  .self- 
support  above  other  things  of  greater  importance.  Neither  have 
we  made  a hobby  of  it.  We  have  believed  that  as  the  people 
grow  in  grace  and  in  the  doctrines  of  the  Word,  .self-support 
would  be  one  of  the  fruits  of  this  growth.  And  it  has  proved  so. 
In  building  their  chapels  and  helping  in  the  evangelistic  work 
the  discij)les  do  not  sc^^m  to  have  thought  of  financial  help  from 
the  mis.sionaries.  Self-support  has  been  spontaneous.  During 
the  ]>ast  year  the  discijjles  built  one  temporary'  and  one  per- 
manent chai)el,  and  they  are  now  .securing  material  for  two 
more  snb.stantial  chapels,  while  in  addition  they  contributed  108 
ticals  toward  the  new  church  in  Bangkok.’  Since  this  was  writ- 
ten, the  chapels  referre<l  to  have  doubtless  been  completed. 

“In  considering  results  it  would  be  unjust  to  cite  Siam  and 

101 


Laos  as  comparatively  uiilriiitful  fields  fiecause  the  actual  num- 
ber of  present  converts  is  comparatively  small,  for  these  missions 
have  thoroughly  committed  themselves  to  the  policy  of  self-sup- 
port. Unlike  Korea,  thej'  did  not  have  the  advantage  of  begin- 
ning after  the  new  principles  of  self-support  had  been  enunciated, 
but  like  most  of  the  older  missions  they  have  had  to  reconstruct 
much  of  their  work,  in  some  cases  being  obliged  to  begin  all  over 
again.  It  is  not  fair,  therefore,  to  contrast  the  pre.sent  statistical 
tables  with  tho.se  of  a decade  ago,  without  taking  this  fact  into 
con.sideration.  Discouragements  thei-e  are,  beyond  cpiestion,  but 
I believe  that  the  work  in  these  two  mi.ssions  is  now  on  a .sound 
basis,  that  it  is  in  a healthy-  condition,  and  that  if  the  home 
churches  will  enable  the  Board  to  adequately  equip  it  we  may 
reasonably  expect  a great  work  for  God  in  Siam  and  Laos.  The 
care  of  these  missions  in  making  out  their  estimates  for  native 
work  is  worthy  of  high  jjraise.  So  rigid  is  the  application  of  the 
principle  of  self-sui)port,  that  there  is  practically  nothing  left 
that  can  be  cut  unless  the  Board  stops  itinerating  by  the  mis- 
sionaries.” 

In  the  South  Siam  Mission  we  found  that  the  policies  described 
by  Dr.  Bi-own  were  still  generally  held  as  theoretically  right. 
There  had  been  no  great  success  in  carrying  out  the  policies 
because  the  growth  pf  the  church  had  been  .so  .small  and  in  some 
cases  the  policy  itself  had  been  let  go.  The  new  church  built 
by  the  Siamese  themselves  to  which  Dr.  Brown  refers,  was  in 
use,  and  it  is  a veiy  attractive  church  building,  but  the  donor  had 
drifted  away  from  the  church  and  no  longer  attended,  the  congre- 
gation was  small  and  made  up  almost  entirely  of  the  teachers 
and  ])upils  of  the  boys’  school,  and  the  church  had  no  Siamese 
pastor  but  was  cared  for  by  one  of  the  missionaries.  The  mis- 
sion was  employing  evangelists  freely  with  mission  funds  and 
would  have  employed  more  if  it  had  had  the  money  and  could 
have  found  the  men.  It  held  clearly,  however,  to  the  ideal  of  a 
wholly  self-supporting,  self-propagating,  and  self-governing 
church  led  by  its  own  people  and  with  settled  pastors  and  evan- 
gelists supported  by  the  native  church  as  the  right  ideal,  difficult 
of  attainment  in  southern  Siam  but  still  to  be  held  to  as  the 
regulative  principle  of  mi.ssion  methods.  We  a.sked  one  of  the 
senior  memibers  of  the  mission  what  the  lessons  of  his  long  ex- 
perience were,  and  he  replied  “One,  that  we  should  provide  for 
the  continuous  prosecution  of  the  work  under  a consistent  mis- 
sionary policy  and  with  an  adequate  missionary  staff.  In  our 
educational  institutions  we  have  had  both  of  these  and  the  suc- 
cess of  the  schools  attests  the  wisdom  of  the  policy.  In  our  evan- 
gelistic work  we  have  had  neithei*.  The  mission  should  have  a 
settled  policy  to  be  pursued  by  all  its  members,  and  there  should 
be  men  enough  to  make  it  possible  to  conduct  the  evangelistic 
work  without  constant  periods  of  neglect  and  discontinuance. 
Two,  that  we  should  have  clearly  in  view  a policy  of  self-support 
and  reliance  on  the  Siamese  Church.  We  shall  find  it  hard  to 

102 


adhere  to  such  a policy  and  it  may  be  necessary  from  time  to 
time  to  allow  temporary  departures  from  it,  but  we  mnst  not 
abandon  the  policy  or  give  np  the  idea  of  an  indej)endent  self- 
directed  church  as  our  governiug  i>rinciple.  I think  there  is 
justification  of  the  employment  by  the  mission  of  some  able 
evangelists  who  will  give  all  their  time  to  the  work  and  I have 
employed  evangelists  temporarily  also,  paying  them  only  when 
they  were  out  in  the  field  with  me.  Men  ought  not  to  be  paid 
for  evangelistic  work  in  the  communities  where  they  live,  but 
should  do  that  work  voluntarily  while  they  earn  their  living 
just  as  they  have  been  accustomed  to  do.  Or,  if  they  are  to  be 
emplo3-ed  it  should  be  by  the  native  church.  Three,  that  there 
should  be  thorough  supervision  of  all  the  evangelistic  work,  that 
it  is  wrong  to  emj)loy  men  and  not  give  them  the  help  of  con- 
stant counsel  and  fellowship.  OtherwLse  men  who  might  have 
been  saved  for  good  work  will  deteriorate  and  be  lost.  Four, 
that  we  should  do  more  to  develop  the  native  church  as  an  evan- 
gelizing organ,  that  we  should  expect  more  from  it  in  the  way 
of  giving.  I think  the  element  of  i)Ovei'ty  can  be  eliminated  in 
Siam.  A Siamese  can  board  here  for  00  ticals  or  .f30.48  gold 
per  annum  and  his  clothes  will  cost  him  very  little.  We  should 
do  all  we  can  to  promote  the  .sj)irit  of  independence  and  not  let 
Siamese  own  houses  on  mi.ssion  j)roperty  or  l)ecome  mission  ten- 
ants or  drift  into  any  of  the  many  ways  of  ])arasiti.sm.”  To 
these  ideals,  although  their  attainment  seems  remote,  and  though 
there  have  been  occasional  heretical  la])ses  from  them,  the  South 
Siam  Mi.ssion  in  ])rinciple  adheres. 

F]»  to  the  year  18!)4  the  North  Siam  Mission  develo])ed  along 
the  old  lines  of  inLssion  ])olicv  which  liad  not  confronted  them- 
selves witli  the  ideal  of  a .self-sui»itort ing  native  church,  and 
which  made  liberal  use  of  mission  funds  in  the  em])loynient  of 
native  agents.  At  that  time  one  missionary  luul  fifty  men  em- 
ployed in  evangelistic  work  in  the  ('hieng  Mai  i)lain,  most  of  them 
untrained  men  and  all  of  them  jtaid  from  mission  funds  with  no 
thought  of  a .self-supi)ort ing  church.  Then  came  the  heavy  re- 
duction of  appropriations  necessitated  by  the  reduced  gifts  of 
the  church  after  the  financial  stringency  of  18!K>.  “With  this  re- 
duction of  our  money  resources,”  said  one  member  of  the  mis- 
sion, “our  j)olicy  broke  down  and  we  conld  not  em])loy  all  the 
men  we  had  been  emi)loying,  and  with  the  cutting  down  of  em- 
j>loyed  men  there  came  a slump  in  the  recei)tion  of  new  members. 
It  was  this  financial  stringency  which  forced  a new  jiolicy  on 
us  and  not  any  change  in  ])i  inciple  as  we  had  already  begun  to 
realize  the  need  of  .self-su]»i)oi-t  and  wei-e  beginning  both  in  our 
schools  and  in  (»ur  church  to  work  toward  it.”  At  any  rate  the 
change  was  made  and  the  mission  decided  not  to  ein])loy  further 
native  workers  with  foreign  funds,  but  to  have  them  rely  upon 
the  sui)port  of  the  native  congregations.  We  had  suj)posed  in 
coming  to  North  Siam  that  we  should  find  this  jx)licy  still  en- 
forced, doubtle.ss  with  adaidations  to  circumstance  and  condi- 

10:3 


tions,  but  recognized  as  the  general  working  rule  of  the  mission. 
But  the  mission  was  as  greatly  sui*prised  as  we  were  when  these 
extracts  from  Dr.  Brown’s  report  were  read  to  discover  how 
widely  at  variance  the  present  situation  is  from  that  described 
there.  In  order  fairly  to  represent  the  matter  I think  it  will  be 
better  simply  to  report  without  names  the  statements  of  different 
members  of  the  mission  in  the  conferences  at  Prae,  Lakon,  and 
Chieng  Mai. 

A.  “I  never  heard  until  Dr.  Brown’s  visit,  the  phra.se,  ‘a  self- 
governing,  self-supporting,  self-propagating  church,’  but  the  idea 
in  that  phrase  is  what  as  a mission  we  had  already  begun  to 
feel  after  and  had  adopted  as  our  policy  in  1894-95  when  we  saw 
the  mistake  of  the  old  methods.  But  as  I see  it  we  have  lo.st  what 
we  gained  then  and  our  first  blunder  was  made  in  1895  when  the 
theological  school  rebelled  against  our  new  plans.  We  asked  the 
students  then  to  accept  support  not  from  the  mission  but  from 
the  church  and  the  mission  combined.  They  demanded  the  assur- 
ance of  support  at  the  rate  of  a rupee  a day.  I think  we  commit- 
ted one  error  in  the  way  that  we  handled  that  situation  then  and 
in  subsequent  years.  Also  we  have  erred  in  not  raising  up  teachers 
for  our  village  schools,  and  in  self-support  it  is  undeniable  that 
the  idea  of  evangelistic  service  and  the  idea  of  payment  from  mis- 
sion funds  have  become  associated,  and  I hardly  know  how  we  can 
solve  our  problem  except  by  dealing  radically  with  it  as  Africa 
did,  although  that  would  mean  temporarily  the  loss  of  many  so- 
called  Christians.” 

B.  “This  mission  has  changed  its  policy  twice.  It  did  so 
sharply  in  1895.  As  a result  of  the  influence  of  Dr.  Xevius’s 
little  book  on  mission  methods.  That  book  had  good  and  bad 
points.  It  was  good*  in  its  emphasis  on  giving  and  bad  in  its 
discouragement  of  paid  preaching,  for  those  paid  to  preach  I 
And  more  effectual  than  the  unpaid,  just  as  with  our  churches 
in  America.  But  we  indiscriminately  adopted  Dr.  Nevius’s  pol- 
icy. Kow  our  policy  has  changed.  We  have  abandoned  Dr. 
Nevius’s  view.  But  while  we  have  moved  away  from  it  we  have 
not  gone  back  to  the  old  indiscriminate  employment,  ignoring 
self-support.  We  have  gained  enormously  both  in  our  churches 
and  in  our  schools.  We  emphasize  giving  but  we  have  returned 
to  paid  eva'ngelists.  Paying  evangelists  increases  the  real  faith 
that  works  for  spiritual  results,  by  taking  away  their  anxiety  as 
to  support.  It  induces  men  to  enter  the  evangelistic  work  who 
would  not  otherwise  do  so  and  who,  having  entered  it,  engage 
permanently  in  it.  General  evangelists  we  must  have  to  train 
the  local  elders  and  I favor  also  the  paid  employment  of  men 
in  their  own  villages.  I think  paid  testimony  is  more  effective 
than  unpaid.  It  bears  the  testimonial  of  the  mission’s  endorse- 
ment and  authority  which  makes  the  preacher  more  effective 
than  if  he  represents  a native  congregation.  These  are  the 
actual  facts  as  we  have  to  deal  with  them  here.  At  the  same 
time  there  are  dangers  and  I would  favor  the  plan  of  a central 

104 


presbyterial  fund  to  support  evangelists,  the  churches  and  mis- 
sion to  pay  into  the  fund  in  certain  proportions.” 

C.  ‘‘We  had  to  take  the  action  we  did  in  1895  on  account  of 
the  cut  in  our  appropriations,  but  at  the  same  time  it  did  repre- 
sent a change  of  policy.  We  had  supported  evangelists  and  min- 
isters from  the  mission  treasury  without  any  burden  on  the 
native  church,  and  we  stopped  it.  Of  course  the  result  was  that 
many  left  Christian  work  altogether  but  many  of  them  came 
back  afterward,  although  I must  admit  that  it  is  a fact  that 
they  got  in  coming  back  and  are  now  getting  the  pay  they  asked 
and  were  refused  in  1895.” 

D.  “The  facts  are  unmistakable.  W’^e  adopted  a policy  which 
in  its  main  principle,  whatever  its  relaxation  should  have  been, 
was  right  and  we  have  not  adhered  to  it.  We  have  no  policies 
that  we  adhere  to.  We  adopt  a course  of  procedure  and  then 
each  one  goes  away  and  does  what  is  right  in  his  own  eyes.  We 
ought  to  have  some  one  in  charge  of  the  whole  evangelistic  work 
of  the  mission,  give  him  authority  to  pick  out  the  best  men  in 
the  mission  and  assign  and  direct  their  work  and  to  hold  them 
responsible  for  the  continuous  pursuit  of  a wise  and  definitely 
agreed  upon  plan.” 

E.  “We  have  no  definite  policy  at  all  at  present.  Every  man 
has  his  own.  The  free-grace  preaching  of  Christianity  as  against 
Buddhist  merit  has  been  overdone  and  resulted  in  a church  that 
is  absolutely  dependent  iipon  us.  Our  argument  has  been  that 
the  best  course  was  to  gather  a large  Christian  community  as 
rapidly  as  po.s.sible  by  paid  evangelists  and  then  throw  the  bur- 
den of  support  back  on  the  large  community.  It  can  be  easier 
done  then  than  now.  While  the  community  is  small  the  people 
all  come  to  the  mi.ssionarv',  when  it  is  large  they  will  not  be  able 
to  do  this  and  will  have  to  organize  and  sustain  their  own  agen- 
cies. Nevertheless  I am  sure  that  from  the  beginning  our  gifts 
should  be  co-ordinated  to  the  gifts  of  the  people  and  they  should 
bear  their  responsibility.” 

F.  “If  we  have  a policy  of  church  organization  and  develop- 
ment, T have  not  been  able  to  find  it.  Some  of  our  individual 
mi.s.sionaries  have  such  policies  and  are  working  nobly  with 
them,  but  they  do  not  agree  and  whatever  the  mission  may  have 
done  in  1895  it  has  no  clear  mission  plan  now.  We  are  indi- 
vidualists, we  are  disposed  to  say  that  each  man  should  be  let 
alone  to  run  his  own  work.  The  responsibility  rests  on  the  older 
men  too.  It  is  hard  for  the  younger  men  to  make  any  sugges- 
tions. Often,  if  they  simply  ask  a question  in  order  to  get  in- 
formation it  is  mistaken  for  a criticism.  I think  we  will  never 
reach  our  aim  until  we  teach  tlie  people  that  they  should  support 
Christianity  as  they  supported  Buddhism,  that  they  should  give 
when  they  have  found  the  Saviour  as  they  gave  when  they  were 
trying  to  save  themselves.  By  any  other  course  we  are  creating 
a burden  greater  than  we  can  carry.” 

G.  “Our  problem  is  a hard  one.  We  are  dealing  with  a child- 

105 


like  people.  In  the  old  days  they  wei'e  absolutely  ruled  by  their 
c'hiefs  and  the  government  was  so  paternal  that  the  chief  took 
anything  he  wanted  from  his  peoj)le,  and  they  came  to  him  for 
anything.  The  idea  of  self-dependence,  of  laying  ont  a constrnc- 
tive  conr.se  of  j)rocednre  and  then  carrying  it  through,  is  an  alien 
idea  to  them.  Our  vacillation  and  confu.sion  of  mi.ssion  policy  is 
in  kee])ing  with  their  own  character.  I think  we  should  have 
stuck  unyieldingly  to  the  action  of  1895  and  that  we  should  have 
some  plan  for  holding  each  station  tight  to  the  policy  of  the  mi'S- 
sion,  that  each  man  should  have  his  work  a.ssigned  hy  the  mis.viion 
and  should  do  it  in  accordance  with  the  mission's  princij>les.  At 
present  we  lack  unity  not  only  in  binding  all  our  institutions  to- 
gether but  in  controlling  our  evangelistic  i)rogram.” 

II.  “At  the  time  of  the  big  cuts  twenty  years  ago,  I had  hope 
that  we  would  see  the  church  in  this  land  make  encouraging 
growth  in  this  matter.  But  I confess  that  the  growth  has  been 
exceedingly  .slow.  It  is  absolutely  disheartening.  There  is  no 
missiion  unity  of  thought  or  action  on  this  subject.  Each  sta- 
tion goes  ahead  according  to  its  own  ideas;  and  these  ideas 
change  with  the  personnel  of  the  station.  A new  man  comes  into 
a station,  and  can  uj>set  the  plans  of  others  that  have  been  car- 
ried out  for  years.  When  a jdan  is  suggested  the  objection  is 
raised  that  unless  the  whole  mission  adopts  the  plan,  it  is  nse- 
le.ss  for  one  station  to  try  to  do  anything.  I am  told  by  others 
that  this  man  or  that  man  thinks  his  plaji  is  best,  althongh  it 
a])j)ears  to  be  a plan  for  going  backward  rather  than  forward ; 
backward,  i.  e.,  in  self-reliance  (though  ])erhaps  forward  in  sta- 
tistical report).  I am  told  by  some  that  there  is  nothing  to 
worry  about — things  are  going  ahead  beautifully.  Well,  I -have 
ceased  to  worry  others  about  my  notions,  but  the  fact  (as  I 
see  it  I is  that  we  are  nearly  twenty  years  behind  hand  in  this 
matter;  and  we  are  dealing  with  a people  who  need  training  in 
this  way — as  a j)eople — more  than  any  other  nation.  I am  not 
pessimistic.  I am  a Calvinist  and  believe  in  God  I I have  been 
told  that  ill  evangelistic  work  done  for  the  people  by  the  people, 
our  station  is  not  behind  any  station  in  the  mission.  If  that 
is  so.  then  I submit  that  some  enormous  changes  must  be  made 
before  we  shall  ever  be  able  to  evangelize  the  Tai  race  through 
the  etforts  and  siipiiort  of  the  Tai  Christians;  and  I .submit  that 
the  Tai  race  will  never  be  evangelized  in  any  other  way.  And 
if  it  is  not  done,  the  fault  will  be  that  of  the  North  and  South 
iSiani  ^li.ssions.  But  it  will  be  done,  even  if  God  has  to  accom- 
plish it  without  the  intermediate  help  of  our  missions.  His 
iSpirit  is  already  at  work  in  the  hearts  of  a few  Tai  Christians, 
uud  He  will  raise  up  leaders.  One  man  among  us  says,  ‘We  do 
not  need  any  more  system,  but  we  need  more  individual  consci- 
ence.’ This  man  would  cut  down  onr  evangelistic  funds,  and 
increase  other  funds.  I think  it  is  the  way  the  funds  are  used, 
and  I would  like  to  see  the  evangelistic  fund  increased  many 
fold.  Some  men  would  give  splendid  support  to  our  higher  edu- 

106 


cational  institutions,  but  would  give  nothing  to  help  out  village 
schools.  Both  in  evangelistic  and  in  educational  work,  I would 
help  those  who  help  themselves;  starting  out  with  the  definite 
purpose  of  helping  them  so  they  may  be  enabled  to  gradually  be- 
come self-maiutaiuing  and  self-relying.  Now  that  we  are  be- 
ginning a Theological  Department,  and  are  beginning  to  ordain 
men  in  the  ministry,  the  matter  becomes  still  more  serious.  We 
shall  have  to  be  careful  lest  we  bring  up  a lot  of  men  who  think 
the  mis.sion  owes  them  a living!  We  have  plenty  now.” 
dt  would  be  ea.sy  of  course  to  misinterpret  utterances  like 
these.  They  are  the  free  words  with  which  men  speak  of  their 
own  work  who  are  trying  not  to  balance  everything  judicially, 
but  to  see  .sharply  the  elements  of  weakness.  Nothing  was  more 
encouraging  to  us  than  to  meet  with  this  unflinching,  penetrat- 
ing, self-critici.sm  on  the  part  of  the  North  Siam  Mis.sion.  The 
mission  knows  the  bright  .side  also  and  we  have  tried  to  describe 
that  in  the  letters  regarding  the  various  stations,  but  it  is  the 
weaknes.ses  of  the  work  that  it  is  desirable  to  bring  out  here, 
and  it  was  clear  to  us  as  it  is  clear  to  almost  all  the  members 
of  the  mission  that  there  is  need  of  a new  definition  by  the 
mission  of  a few  main  outlines  of  i)olicy  which  every  .station 
and  every  member  of  every  station  must  pursue,  that  this  policy 
need  not  be  elaborate  nor  deal  with  too  detailed  methods  of  ap- 
plication, but  that  it  .should  recognize  what  the  great  ideals  are 
and  sliould  make  these  ideals  dominant  over  present  activity. 
There  ought  to  be  ample  room  for  free  individual  action  under 
/such  a policy,  but  there  ought  to  be  no  anarchy  nor  an  opportun- 
ism whicli  amounts  to  the  same  thing. 

1.  In  carrying  out  such  a policy  it  is  very  desirable  that 
there  should  be  as  much  continuity  in  the  personnel  of  each  sta- 
tion as  j>ossible.  No  mission  has  sufiercMl  more  from  the  fre- 
(piency  of  transfers  of  its  start'  from  one  station  to  another  than 
the  North  Siam  Mission.  It  is  strange  that  the  mission  where 
.such  transfers  are  most  ditlicult  and  expensive  and  injurious  to 
the  work  should  be  the  mission  that  has  had  most  of  them.  In 
Chieng  Mai  the  station  personnel  has  been  for  the  most  part 
permanent  and  the  liaj)py  etfects  are  unmistakable.  Prae  station, 
iiowever,  was  oj)ened  twenty-two  years  ago.  After  Mr.  Shields 
and  Dr.  Tliomas  left.  Dr.  (’rooks  and  ^Ir.  Irwin  were  there  for 
one  year,  then  Dr.  Crooks  was  moved  to  Chieng  Kai  and  later 
to  Lakon,  and  Mr.  Irwin  came  home  on  furlough.  Tlie  station 
was  left  unoccupied  for  five  years.  Then  Dr.  Taylor  and  Mr. 
Gillies  toured  the  field  from  Lakon,  and  Mr.  Gillies  came  to  stay 
in  11)11,  but  was  later  moved  to  Chieng  Mai.  Dr.  Cort  was  trans- 
ferrtMl  to  Prae  from  Lakon  in  11)12  until  his  furlough  in  1914, 
when  he  returned  to  Chieng  Mai.  Mr.  Callendar  came  in  1913 
and  now  Dr.  Park  is  associated  witli  him,  but  Mr.  Callendar 
has  come  home  on  furlough  and  Mr.  Beebe  has  been  sent  down 
from  (’hieng  Uai.  It  is  imj)ossible  that  there  .should  be  con- 
tinuity of  work  in  a station  where  the  force  is  i)erpetually  dis- 

J07 


arranged,  and  it  is  impossible  that  men  should  do  their  best 
work  when  they  are  not  allowed  time  to  accumulate  the  assets 
of  the  confidence  and  good  will  of  the  people  and  the  knowledge 
of  the  field.  In  many  mi.s.sion  .stations  our  older  missionaries 
have  come  to  be  an  integral  part  of  the  community  life  and  often 
to  be  looked  upon  as  among  the  pillars  and  guides  of  the  com- 
munity, but  time  is  necessarv’  to  settle  a man  in  .such  honor  and 
influence.  There  have  doubtless  been  many  strong  reasons  for 
the  changes  which  have  been  made  in  northern  Siam,  but  one  is 
tempted  to  believe  that  the  losses  incurred  in  these  frequent 
tran.sfers  have  outweighe<l  the  gains.  If  the  present  stations 
cannot  be  operated  without  such  constant  changes  then  it  would 
surely  be  better  to  reduce  the  number  of  stations. 

2.  A cardinal  point  in  the  policy  of  a mi.ssion  is  its  aim  with 
regard  to  the  native  church  and  the  ideal  of  organization  and 
relationship  which  it  holds  with  regard  to  the  church.  At  our 
fir.st  conferences  with  the  representatives  of  the  Prae  and  Xan 
and  Lakon  stations  we  met  with  views  on  this  subject  which 
were  of  great  interest.  I quote  from  notes  of  the  conferences. 

A.  “We  do  not  have  and  we  cannot  have  in  this  mi.ssion  a 
settled  ]>astorate  such  as  we  know  in  the  churches  at  home.  In 
the  early  OO’s  we  ordained  five  men  as  pastors  over  churches  and 
at  the  end  of  the  year  all  these  relationships  were  dissolved.  It 
has  been  neces.sary  to  use  the  men  instead  as  traveling  evangel- 
ists. Our  Christians  are  all  from  the  common  people.  None  of 
them  have  the  necessary  gifts  of  administration  and  leadership 
and  until  some  of  the  naturally  leading  cla.ss  of  the  people  have 
been  won  we  can’t  have  ordained  and  installed  pastors.” 

B.  “The  policy  of  our  mission  is  not  to  have  native  pastors 
settled  over  local  churches.  We  have  tried  it  and  given  it  up. 
Our  policy  is  to  have  elders  taking  care  of  the  congregation 
without  financial  support.  Above  these  are  the  itinerating  evan- 
gelists sent  out  by  the  mission  who  do  not  have  any  authority 
of  supervision  over  the  congregations,  but  just  visit  them  natur- 
ally as  they  come  in  the  coiirse  of  their  itineration.  The  super- 
vision is  in  the  hands  of  missionaries  who  visit  the  churches  and 
administer  baptism.  In  the  Nan  and  Prae  fields  we  have  no  or- 
dained native  men  authorized  to  baptize.  In  Nan  there  were 
last  year  ten  evangelists,  this  v’ear  six.  They  go  out  through  the 
field  and  then  come  in  for  the  evangelist.s’  training  class.  The 
elders  are  urged  to  come  in  also  and  they  are  offered  room  when 
they  come  but  have  not  been  helped  otherwise.” 

C.  “Twenty  or  twenty-five  years  ago  the  mission  was  em- 
ploying with  forngn  funds  all  the  evangelists  it  could.  Then 
we  dropped  these  and  employed  only  evangelists  who  could  be 
supported  by  the  native  church.  We  found  that  the  men  secured 
under  such  a scheme  of  self-support  were  no  better  than  those 
develo])ed  under  the  mission  pay  system.  And  we  have  gone 
back  now  to  tbe  old  system  of  having  all  the  evangelists  under 
the  mission  and  paid  through  the  mission,  although  some  are 

108 


supported  in  part  by  the  church.  The  whole  scheme  of  having 
pastors  from  the  people  supported  by  the  people  broke  down  and 
we  have  none  such  now  and  will  not  have  any.  Our  system  is  to 
have  elders  only  in  the  chiirches  and  to  retain  the  whole  pas- 
toral control  in  the  hands  of  missionaries.  In  fifty  or  a hundred 
years,  perhaps,  it  may  be  possible  to  have  ordained  native  pas- 
tors.” 

D.  “Experience  has  .shown  that  there  are  no  Lao  men  as  yet 
competent  to  be  made  pastors.  They,  have  not  the  literature  to 
study.  They  cannot  provide  the  variety  of  preaching.  The  peo- 
ple, moreover,  are  not  content  to  be  ruled  or  directed  by  one  of 
their  own  number.  It  is  far  wiser  to  retain  our  present  system 
of  elders  and  native  evangelists  and  mis.sionary  .superintendents.” 

Another  member  of  the  mission  afterwards  wrote  out  the  state- 
ment which  he  had  made  orally  of  this  view. 

“You  seemed  interested  in  my  statement  regarding  elders, 
ministers,  and  the  Presbytery.  I will  try  to  put  it  a little  more 
clearly.  Having  recently  read  ‘St.  Paul’s  Method  or  Ours,’  I 
will  try  to  relate  what  I say  to  it.  He  is  right  in  saying  that 
the  situation  Paul  found  and  that  we  find  today  have  much  in 
, common,  and  that  we  can  learn  much,  if  not  from  the  hnethods,’ 
at  least  from  the  principles  of  St.  I’aul  which  Allen  states  well. 

“He  assumes  that  St.  I’aul  ordained  not  merely  ‘elders’  but 
also  inini.sters  or  clergymen  as  we  u.se  those  terms.  Of  course, 
about  100  A. I),  we  find  evidence  of  a more  or  less  regular  pas- 
torate, but  earlier  than  that  .do  we  find  such  evideuce?  Even 
then  was  the  pastorate  the  general  rule?  Did  any  of  Paul’s 
churches  have  what  we  would  call  ‘a  settled  pastor’?  Allen 
says  distinctly  that  the  administration  of  the  sacraments  and 
of  discipline  in  the  case  of  the  local  church  was  left  to  these 
‘elder.s’  of  whom  each  church  had  several.  This  seems  to  me  to 
have  been  the  ca.se.  It  does  not  .seem  to  me  that,  at  least  at  first, 
any  one  gave  his  whole  time,  paid  or  unpaid,  to  the  care  of  the 
local  church,  but  that  a pastorate  was  a matter  of  gradual  devel- 
opment, one  of  the  local  elders  becoming  the  leader,  giving  more 
and  more  of  hi.s  time  to  the  work  and  eventually  being  imported 
wholly  by  the  Christian  community. 

“We  made  the  mistake  of  imposing  ‘pastors’  on  churches  which 
did  not  yet  realize  the  need  of  them  and  were  not  ready  to  sup- 
port them,  either  morally  or  financially.  I am  not  anxious  re- 
garding the  ell'ect  ecclesiastically  on  our  Pre.sbyterian  system. 
‘Elders’  are  thoroughly  in  accoial  with  custom  here;  pastors  are 
needed  from  our  point  of  view,  but  ‘Are  they  as  yet  demanded 
by  the  sen.se  of  the  church  here?’  that  is  the  question. 

“The  churches  see  the  need  of  well-trained  ordained  evangelists 
and  will,  I think,  support  them  in  increasing  numbers,  but  the 
church,  not  the  mini.stry,  it  seems  to  me,  should  be  the  basis  of 
our  ecclesiastical  system.  Practically  this  is  so  in  our  Pre-sb^'- 
teiy  today.  I think  it  should  be  definitely  so.  One  elder  for 
each  church  and  added  representation  of  "churches  having  say 

109 


over  150  members,  togetber  with  all  oidaiiie<]  ministers  in  our 
bounds  should,  it  seems  to  me,  form  a jiresbytery.  I did  not 
mean  to  say  that  the  foreign  missionary  sliould  have  a different 
office  from  the  native  minister.  I s])oke  of  his  duties  as  those  of 
a bishop,  but  I said  this  as  distinguisliing  liim  from  a pastor. 
Some  pastoral  duties  come  to  him  but  he  should  place  as  far  as 
possible  on  the  church  for  session  i itself  or  a native  minister. 
What  Allen  says  about  placing  responsibility  on  them  is  admir- 
able. 

“I  would  be  willing,  would  think  it  wise  in  many  cases,  to  give 
the  right  of  administering  the  sacraments  to  the  session  until 
we  have  a larger  imniber  of  ordained  men  supported  bj'  the 
churches.” 

It  is  needless  to  say  that  these  views  were  interesting.  They 
were  more  than  that.  They  were  dumbfounding.  Not.  however, 
in  their  ecclesiastical  aspects.  It  is  quite  conceivable  that  in 
some  circumstances  settled  pastors  over  single  congregations 
may  be  unnecessary.  There  are  many  congregations  at  home 
that  would  probably  be  better  off  if  the  local  elder.ship  a.ssumed 
more  respomsibility  and  they  fell  under  a general  collective  pa.s- 
torate  rather  than  a single  ])astor  for  each.  It  is  a fine  thing 
to  develo])  in  each  local  congregation  its  own  gifts  and  not  to 
proceed  on  the  assumption  that  every  little  group  of  Christians 
needs  its  own  installed  minister.  The  disconcerting  thing  is 
that  these  views  involved  a disbelief  in  the  capacty  of  the  Lao 
people  to  pi'ovide  a type  of  Christian  leadership  which  it  has 
been  found  possible  to  raise  up.  I' think,  among  every  other  i)eo- 
ple  to  whom  mi.ssionaries  have  gone.  Certainly  there  is  no 
other  mission  of  our  Church  where  it  has  not  been  possible  to 
raise  up  an  ordained  ministry  and  pastorate.  There  is  no  diffi- 
culty in  finding  men  in  .southern  Siam  in  the  church  abundantly 
able  to  take  charge  of  the  pastorate  of  a church.  The  only  diffi- 
cult}’ there  is  to  find  men  willing  to  do  it.  Also  it  was  disconcert- 
ing to  have  to  face  a j)rosi)ect  of  indefinite  missionary  .suiiervis- 
iou  and  maintenance  of  the  churches  among  the  Lao.  It  is  quite 
true  that  we  have  been  in  some  mission  fields  for  fifty  years  or 
more,  but  it  is  dismaying  to  think  that  we  must  continue  as  at 
present  for  fifty  years  or  another  century  in  northern  Siam  be- 
fore a native  pastorate  and  a self-governing  church  can  be  raised 
up.  Yet  a third  discouragement  in  these  views  was  the  fact  that 
they  eliminated  the  po.ssibility  of  the  one  type  of  native  workers 
who  .seem  to  be  able  to  take  over  the  indigenous  administration 
of  the  church  and  to  locate  their  functions  instead  in  a foreign 
mission  agency  viewed  as  a practical  i)ernianency.  In  other 
fields  it  has  been  found  that  only  as  there  grew  up  a consider- 
able body  of  capable  men  repres'enting  local  congregations  could 
a strong  self-directing  national  church  be  developeci.  So  clearly 
did  the  (Miurch  of  Christ  iii  Japan  come  to  see  this  that  they  at 
last  made  the  I’resbyterial  recognition  of  any  congregation  to 
depend  ui)on  its  ability  and  willingness  to  support  its  own  pas- 

110 


tor.  It  may  be  that  an  independent  native  chnrcli  can  be  de- 
veloped in  some  other  way,  bnt  it  ha.s  not  yet  been  done,  and 
to  the  friend  who  supplied  the  written  statement  which  has 
been  quoted  I wrote  back  as  follows : “It  was  good  to  have  your 
comment  on  the  (piestion  of  church  organization.  I am  quite 
in  accord  with  you  as  to  the  desirability  of  the  utmost  flexi- 
bility. My  only  zeal  is  for  life  and  reality,  for  a church  that  is 
really  propagating  itself  and  that  is  not  actually  dependent  npon 
a foreign  mission  for  its  direction  and  maintenance.  And  ap- 
parently the  only  way  to  get  the  actual  responsibility  and  author- 
ity out  of  the  hands  of  missionaries  is  to  locate  it  in  a native 
ministry  supported  by  a native  church.  A system  which  pro- 
vides only  elders  and  evangelists,  as  a matter  of  fact,  leaves  the 
whole  control  and  direction  in  the  hands  of  foreigii  missionaries 
and  continues  Christianity  accordingly  as  an  exotic  organiza- 
tion. If  you  can  really  develop  an  autonomous  and  self-extend- 
ing church  with  elders  and  evangelists  alone,  I should  sa}'  by 
all  means  go  ahead  and  do  it.  I should  rejoice  to  see  such  a 
church,  but  thus  far  that  policy  has  not  yielded  a living  and 
self-snpj)orting  chnrch  but  one  which  in  north  Siam  distinctly 
depends  ui»on  the  mi.ssionary,  and  outside  of  Chieng  Mai,  abso- 
lutely upon  him.  I would  rather  see  the  missionary  eliminated 
than  the  native  ministry.” 

Perhaps  this  discussion  takes  the.se  views  too  seriously.  It 
would  probably  be  better  to  .see  in  them  merely  an  impre.ssive 
statement  of  the  ditticnlties  of  the  ta.sk  of  building  np  a really 
.self-directing,  indei)endent  church,  the  need  of  i»atience  in  the 
process  and  the  warning  that  we  shall  meet  with  many  dis- 
appointments. It  is  of  great  imi)ortance,  however,  that  our 
theories  and  ideals  should  take  account  of  facts,  and  if  it  is  a 
fact  tliat  the  plan  of  ordaining  Lao  men  to  the  gospel  ministry 
has  been  tried  and  found  a failure,  this  .should  be  known.  Al- 
though even  if  it  were  found  to  be  a fact  of  twenty  years  ago  that 
surely  would  be  no  reason  wliy  it  shonld  be  a fact  today  unless 
all  our  theories  as  to  tlie  functions  of  education  as  a missionary 
agency  are  at  fault.  As  a matter  of  fact  the  i)lan  was  tried  and 
was  not  found  to  be  a failure.  We  asked  the  friends  who  ex- 
pressed the  views  (piote<l,  wliicli  one  of  the  missionaries  in  (’hieng 
.Mai  where  tlie  exj)eriment  had  been  tried,  would  be  able  to  give  us 
an  antlioritative  account  of  it.  They  replied  that  Dr.  Campbell 
could  do  so.  1 staye<l  with  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Campbell  in  Chieng  Mai 
and  I do  not  believe  that  any  native  ministers  or  anybody  else, 
native  or  foreign,  is  likely  to  fail  if  he  can  enjoy  their  loving 
and  beloved  intlnence.  This  was  Dr.  Camj>bell’s  written  state- 
ment regarding  the  exi)eriment: 

“About  twenty  years  ago  eight  of  the  students  in  the  Theo- 
logical Training  School  were  ordained  to  the  gospel  ministry 
and  three  others  licen.sed.  These  men  were  i)laced  in  charge  of 
churche.s,  .some  of  which  were  remote  and  in  most  ca.ses  were 
left  with  almost  no  visits,  or  counsel,  or  moral  sui)port  from 
the  missionary. 


Ill 


“Under  the  circumstances  it  was  not  surprising  that  the  ex- 
periment should  fail  to  be  an  entire  success.  As  a matter  of 
fact,  two  of  these  men  proved  very  .successful  pastors  until  their 
death.  Several  others  did  well  for  one  or  two  years  and  then 
were  removed  from  their  charges  because  the  people  hesitated 
to  pledge  the  proportion  of  their  salarj’  suggested  by  the  Com- 
mittee of  Presbytery.  Three  became  verj"  faithful  itinerant  pas- 
tors. Two  became  somewhat  intermittent  in  their  labors  be- 
pause  dissatisfied  with  the  rate  of  salary  or  the  arrangements 
made  for  their  work.  One  had  to  be  suspended  from  the  min- 
istry. Another  proved  unemployable  because  of  a di.sposition  to 
engage  in  lawsuits  and  other  contentions  overmuch.  Four  or- 
dained ministers  of  this  group  are  still  living.  Of  these  four, 
one  is  now  a pastor  of  great  practical  wisdom  and  usefulnes.s, 
and  a brother  beloved  univer.sally  by  missionaries  and  native 
Chri.stians. 

“There  is  every  reason  to  believe  that  with  a larger  measure 
of  moral  support  and  sympathy  and  wise  counsel  from  the  mis- 
sionary the  majority  of  these  native  ministers  would  have  been 
successful  to  the  end. 

“Since  that  time  five  others  have  been  ordained  to  the  gospel 
ministry.  One  of  these  was  called  to  his  reward  after  one  or 
two  years  of  useful  itinerant  pastoral  work.  One  seems  some- 
what bewildered  in  attempting  to  adjust  himself  to  his  new 
office.  The  other  three  are  highly  successful.  They  are  men  of 
large  ability  and  large  usefulness,  able  to  oversee  half  a dozen 
or  more  pastors  of  ordinary  churches.  We  have  also  several 
elders  of  similar  large  ability  and  consecration.” 

The  Presbytery  of  North  Siam  also  does  not  deem  the  policy 
of  ordaining  native  ministers  impracticable.  Its  last  meeting 
was  the  most  representative  gathering  of  the  Christian  com- 
munity in  North  Siam  in  many  years.  Four  delegates  were 
present  from  Nan,  two  from  Prae  and  four  each  from  Lakon  and 
Chieug  Rai,  together  with  representatives  from  sixteen  of  the 
eighteen  churches  in  the  Chieng  Mai-Lampoon  valley.  The 
churches  reported  a membership  in  the  28  organized  congrega- 
tions of  6,934,  of  whom  1,091  were  received  to  communion  the 
preceding  year.  The  report  of  the  meeting  in  the  “Laos  News” 
says,  “The  delegates  took  a deep  interest  in  the  report  of  the 
work  of  Bible  distribution,  and  of  the  work  of  the  Theological 
School.  To  the  work  of  the  latter,  they  urge  the  churches  to 
contribute  not  less  than  six  hundred  ticals  the  coming  year. 
Requests  for  authority  to  organize  eight  new  churches  the  com- 
ing year  were  presented  to  Presbytery  and  referred  to  commit- 
tees with  power  to  act.  Two  added  ministers  were  ordained  and 
several  students  for  the  ministry  placed  themselves  under  care 
of  Presbytery.” 

The  Presbytery  in  South  Siam  organized  at  the  beginning  of 
the  work  by  Dr.  House  and  Dr.  Mattoon  has  only  one  ordained 
native  minister  on  its  roll,  the  much-respected  pastor  of  the 

112 


First  Church  at  Sumray  in  Bangkok.  The  last  statistics  of  the 
Presbytery  which  is  connected  with  the  Synod  of  New  York 
reported  two  licentiates.  At  the  time  we  were  in  Siam  it  was 
hoped  one  of  the  able  teachers  of  the  mission  might  soon  be  or- 
dained and  installed  as  pastor  of  the  Wang  Lang  Church.  It 
has  been  exceedingly  difficult  however,  to  get  Siamese  Christians 
to  become  either  pastors  or  evangelists.  They  are  very  ready 
to  teach  and  there  are  some  most  attractive  and  capable  men  on 
the  faculty  of  the  Bangkok  Christian  College,  but  the  preaching 
of  the  gospel  has  carried  a reproach  with  it  which  it  has  been 
hard  for  men,  to  whom  the  highly  respected  work  of  teaching 
is  open,  to  accept.  Also  teachers’  salaries  are  far  higher  than 
the  salaries  which  evangelists  or  pastors  receive  and  more  secure 
than  the  latter  if  they  depend  upon  the  gifts  of  the  native  church. 

But  it  is  clear  that  whatever  the  difficulties  may  be,  one  of  the 
greatest  needs  in  Siam  is  the  raising  up  of  competent  native  men 
sustained  by  their  own  cffiirches,  who  will  give  their  lives  to  the 
sacrificial  preaching  of  the  gospel,  either  as  evangelists  or  as 
settled  pastor.s.  Doubtless  the  work  will  not  be  as  well  done  in 
many  cases  as  it  would  be  by  foreign  missionaries,  but  it  is  bet- 
ter to  have  it  done  by  native  leaders  even  if  it  is  not  done  so  well. 
They  can  only  be  trained  to  power  by  its  exercise.  And  it  is 
hardly  competent  for  a mission  station  to  say  that  the  native 
evangelists  and  elders  are  not  qualified  to  bear  the  responsi- 
bility of  administei'ing  the  Lord’s  Supper  and  baptizing  believ- 
ers if,  as  a matter  of  fact,  the  work  of  pastoral  care,  of  the 
training  of  the  church  members  in  Christian  faith  and  life,  is  left 
almost  wholly  to  these  same  elders  and  evangelists.  Surely  the 
administration  of  the  sacraments  is  a less  arduous  and  exacting 
respon.sibility  than  the  feeding  the  flock  of  God  and  tending  its 
little  lambs.  In  the  report  on  the  I’hilippine  Islands^,  however, 
we  shall  be  dealing  with  the  problem  of  the  development  of 
native  leader.ship  and  need  not  repeat  here  what  will  be  found 
there. 

3.  Self-Support.  Dr.  Brown’s  report  indicates  what  the  con- 
ditions were  years  ago.  It  has  already  appeared  what  they 
are  today.  In  the  South  Siam  Mission  there  is  one  self-support- 
ing church  with  its  own  jiastor,  but  this  church  is  able  to  main- 
tain its  status  onh’  because  of  its  pastor’s  humbleness  and  self- 
sacrifice.  He  is  a noble-spirited  old  man  who  receives  without 
comj)laint  the  30  ticals  a month  which  the  church  provides, 
while  the  teacher  of  the  adjoining  school  receives  nearly  four 
times  as  much.  In  Nakon  the  church  offerings  amount  in  a year 
to  250  ticals  and  maintain  the  church  and  rent  the  city  mission 
chapel.  The  missionaries  give  from  sixty  to  eighty  per  cent,  of 
the  offering.  The  church  building  was  erected  by  the  people, 
one  member  giving  one  fifth,  the  missionaries  another  fifth,  and 
the  rest  of  the  congregation  the  balance.  It  seemed  to  us  that 
the  church  could  be  and  ought  to  be  made  self-supporting  with 
a Siame.se  pastor  instead  of  a missionary  pastor,  even  though 

113 


the  latter  might  he  more  efticient.  Nan  Churcli  supports  one 
evangelist  the  year  around.  The  Prae  Church  gives  200  ticals  a 
year,  two-thirds  of  whicli  is  contributed  by  the  missionariejs. 
The  Lakon  Church  suj)ports  one  of  its  elders  as  an  evangelist 
to  do  pastoral  work  among  the  congregation,  and  it  cares  for 
some  of  its  poor.  All  eight  of  its  elders  have  been  or  are  now  in 
the  employ  of  the  mission.  It  is  very  natural  that  the  mis'sion 
should  emi>loy  the  best  members  of  the  church  and  that  these 
also  should  be  the  ones  to  be  made  elders.  The  elder-pastor  of 
the  church  is  not  selected  by  the  congregation  but  by  the  mis- 
sionary in  charge  and  reports  to  him.  Two-thirds  of  the  church’s 
contributions  are  given  l)y  the  missionarie.s.  The  Chieng  Mai 
city  church  has  ten  elders,  all  but  three  of  whom  are  in  the  niLs- 
siou’s  employ.  The  church  gives  generously  to  the  support  of 
evangelists,  the  theological  seminary,  and  other  activities.  It 
is  under  the  pastoral  care  of  I)i*.  f'ampbell  who  has  three  of  the 
be.st  ordained  native  men  as.sociate<l  with  him  in  the  care  of 
this  and  the  other  native  churches  for  which  he  is  respon.sible. 
The  total  gifts  of  the  churches  in  Soiith  Siam  for  church  support 
and  evangelistic  work  last  year,  as  reported  to  the  Board,  were 
.^SOl,  and  in  North  Siam  were  ?1,450.  The  appropriations  of 
the  Board  for  class  four,  evangeli.stic  work,  were  in  South  Siam, 
.^5,415,  and  in  North  Siam  S;>,4)j0. 

These  proportions  are  not  discouraging.  On  the  other  hand  the 
proportion  in  North  Siam  is  veiw  encouraging,  but  a ])art  of  what 
is  reporter!  is  given  by  missionaries  and  not  by  the  native  church, 
and  it  is  agreed  by  all  that  there  is  need  of  a clearer  and  more  con- 
tinuously ijro.secuted  j)olicy  in  the  matter  of  self-support.  A num- 
ber of  suggestions  on  this  subject  are  nuide  in  the  rejmrt  on  the 
Philippine  mission,  ami  two  concrete  suggestions  were  made  in 
northern  Siam.  One  was  by  Dr.  Briggs:  “Place  the  evangelistic- 
work  under  the  direction  of  the  sessions  of  the  different  churches 
with  episcopal  oversight  of  the  missionaiw  or  missionaries  in 
charge.  The  station  to  allot  to  each  church  session  a certain 
sum  for  the  yc^ar,  the  church  guaranteeing  a given  sum  for  the 
year  also,  the  j)roj)ortiou  between  the.se  amounts  being  regulated 
from  year  to  year,  always  with  the  aim  of  increasing  the  native 
gifts.  The  evangelistic  reports  would  be  given  to  the  churches 
first,  and  then  presented  to  the  station.  Each  church  would  be 
given  to  understand  that  it  was  primarily  responsible  for  the 
evangelism  of  its  district  and  the  elders  of  the  church  are  i-e- 
.spousible  as  elders  in  that  work.  For  local  work  done  without 
absence  from  home,  no  remuneration  should  be  given,  unless 
the  man  is  retained  at  a salary  by  the  session  for  that  work  as 
a pastor  would  be  retained:  in  which  case  his  entire  atteution 
must  be  given  to  the  work,  and  not  to  paddy  fields,  etc.,  etc. 
Missionaries  would  be  allotted  evangelistic  assistants  if  ueede<l, 
outside  this  work  doue  under  the  session.” 

The  other  suggestion  was  that  if  it  was  deemed  inadvisable, 
as  some  of  the  missionaries  thought  it  was,  to  have  evangelists 

114 


employed  by  individual  congregations,  they  should  be  employed 
instead  by  the  presbyterj’  and  supported  by  a presbyterial  fund. 
Mission  money  instead  of  being  paid  to  individual  evangelists 
should  be  paid  into  this  fund,  on  the  ratio  say  of  three  or  two 
ticals  by  the  mission  to  two  or  three  ticals  by  the  church,  with 
the  understanding  that  increased  needs  would  be  met  by  the 
increase  of  the  church  contribution.  To  meet  the  difficulty  that 
the  presbytery  is  too  big  and  unwieldly  to  exercise  supervision 
over  all  the  evangelists,  it  was  proposed  that  the  presbytery 
should  constitute  district  committees  repre.seutiiig  it  in  the  fields 
of  the  difterent  stations,  these  committees  to  act  in  behalf  of  the 
pre.sbyterj'  and  to  report  to  the  presbytery  with  regard  to  all 
evangelists  employed  from  the  presbyterial  joint  fund.  Such  a 
plan  as  this  would  undergo  modifications  when  it  came  to  be 
worked  out,  but  it  has  the  great  advantage  of  recognizing  and 
developing  the  respon.sibility  of  the  native  church  itself  for  the 
evangelization  of  the  field  and  the  employment  of  the  evangeliz- 
ing agents. 

A good  deal  of  evidence  has  already  appeared  incidentally  in 
this  report  to  show  that  tlie  Siamese  are  not  a poverty-stricken 
people,  and  Asvabahu  says  in  his  letters  in  the  “Siam  Observer”: 

“Are  the  Siamese  as  a whole  i-eally  j)oor?  I have  elsewhere 
expre.ssed  it  as  niy  own  individual  opinion  that  they  are  not,  and 
nothing  has  occurred  since  to  make  me  alter  my  opinion.  It  ap- 
pears to  me  very  easy  to  j)rove  this  contention,  as  several  things 
tend  to  prove  it.  Let  me  bring  only  two  of  them  to  your  notice: 

“(1)  In  our  county,  no  one  has  ever  btHui  known  to  die  of 
.starvation. 

“(2)  The  trains  from  the  ju-ovinces  still  bring  in  loads  of 
passengei's,  who  come  to  Bangkok  to  jmt  their  monej'  into  the 
j)Ockets  of  the  lluay  and  Gambling  Farmers.  It  is  obvious  that 
if  people  are  starving,  they  would  scarcely  be  able  to  continue 
doing  so. 

“If  the.se  jtroofs  still  leave  you  unconvinced,  I beg  you  to  take 
a walk  along  the  .streets  and  find  me  ev'en  one  single  j)erson,  who 
is  wearing  tattered  clothes  out  of  necessity!  Do  not  bring  me 
a ])rofessional  beggar,  because  his  tattered  clothes  are  only  a 
sort  of  costume,  which  he  adoj)ts  for  business  jmrposes.  I 
know  of  a iK'ggar  who  has  got  a good-sized  room,  for  which 
he  pays  rent  regularly,  and  who.se  daughter  actually  wears 
jewelry!  You  would  find  things  very  different  in  London,  Paris, 
or  New  York,  where  yon  do  .se<*  a lot  of  real  j)overty,  not  fiv'e 
minutes’  walk  from  the  most  aristocratic  (piarters.  I hope  you 
will  take  my  word  for  it,  because  1 have  been  to  those  three 
cities,  and  I know  what  1 am  talking  about.  Just  a short  walk 
through  one  of  the  slums  of  such  a city  would  convince  you,  that 
our  .so-called  poor  people  in  Bangkok  are  (piite  rich  in  compari- 
son to  the  ])eople  yon  see  there.  If  you  do  not  believe  me,  ask 
any  resi)ectable  European  or  American,  and  he  will  confirm  my 
statements. 


115 


“As  for  our  people  in  the  provinces,  I still  maintain  that 
they  are  not  poor.  To  be  really  poor,  one  must  absolutely  lack 
even  the  necessities  of  life.  Our  provincial  people  do  not  lack 
necessities;  they  have  got  decent  roofs  over  their  heads,  and 
ground  to  till  and  cultivate;  they  have  ample  provisions  all  the 
year  round;  have  their  pigs  and  fowls;  and  a great  many  possess 
cattle  and  wagons.  It  is  true  that  they  have  not  got  much  money  as 
a rule,  but  money  is  not  a necessity  where  people  grow  every- 
thing they  want  for  food;  where  the  materials  for  building  and 
repairing  houses  are  ready  to  hand  provided  by  kind  nature; 
and  where  the  few  things  that  do  not  grow  wild  or  are  not  grown 
at  home  could  be  had  by  barter.  What  money  the  people  earn 
thej'  only  use  for  two  purposes,  namely,  for  paying  taxes  and 
for  gambling!  Compared  with  that  of  other  nations,  the  lot  of 
our  peasants  would  still  be  mo.st  favorable.” 

The  co.st  of  living  is  very  low.  In  Bangkok  and  Petchaburi, 
as  already  intimated,  fifty  dollars  a year  was  estimated  as  a 
sum  in  excess  of  the  needs  of  the  great  mass  of  individuals  for 
annual  maintenance.  In  Chieng  Mai  it  was  claimed  by  f«ome 
that  ten  dollars  a year  would  cover  the  cost  of  living  of  an  adult, 
allowing  fifteen  bushels  of  rice  for  food  at  one  rupee  each  per 
bushel,  nine  rupees  for  clothes  and  six  rupees  for  tobacco  and 
luxuries.  In  Lakon  it  was  stated  that  this  estimate  would  have 
to  be  revised,  as  the  cost  of  rice  there  was  two  rupees  a bushel. 
The  cost  of  boarding  a pupil  in  the  boarding  department  of  the 
Lakon  Boys’  School  was  estimated  at  four  or  five  rupees  a month. 
In  some  of  the  Lao  stations  where  the  crops  have  suffered  from 
drought  there  is  great  poverW.  The  malaria  epidemic  in  the 
Chieng  Mai  plain  also  has  impoverished  the  people.  But,  in  the 
main,  self-support  is  more  economically  possible  in  Siam  than 
in  many  missions.  The  fact  that  the  hospitals  and  schools 
which  were  almost  or  entirely  self-supporting  at  the  time  of  Dr. 
Brown’s  visit,  are  so  still,  indicates  that  the  difficulty  in  the 
waj’  of  self-support  is  not  economic. 

Furthermore,  the  people  were  accustomed  to  give  in  their 
Biiddhist  days.  The  priests  and  the  wats  are  wholly  supported 
by  the  gifts  of  the  people,  which  they  give  willingly.  One  mis- 
sionary asked  an  old  woman  whether  she  understood  Christian- 
ity. “Yes,”  she  said,  and  she  thought  it  was  a very  good  word. 
Why  then  did  she  not  become  a Christian?  “Oh,”  she  replied, 
“to  go  to  the  temple  and  make  offerings  is  very  pleasant.”  She 
liked  the  gongs  and  ceremonies  of  the  temples  and  the  heavy 
odors.  The  bare  life  and  worship  of  the  Christian  church  was 
in  comparison  unattractive.  Dr.  Campbell  said  that  there  were 
many  lessons  which  we  might  learn  as  to  self-support  from  the 
administration  of  the  wats.  In  each  wat  there  would  be  a head 
layman,  a sort  of  secular  head  or  keeper  of  the  wat  property- 
The  priests  and  he  and  some  of  the  other  leading  laj-men  of  the 
parish  would  meet  and  decide  how  much  each  person  should 
give  and  often  write  careful  letters  to  those  whom  they  were 

116 


soliciting.  The  people  get  together  the  amounts  assessed  and 
their  conscience  and  feelings  are  gratified  in  bringing  their  of- 
fering to  the  temple.  Surely  it  is  a pity  that  these  fine  featiires 
of  the  old  religious  life  of  the  people  should  be  lost  in  the  tran- 
sition to  the  Christian  Church. 

It  would  he  possible  to  draw  too  discouraging  an  inference 
from  the  fact  that  so  many  of  the  elders  of  the  churches  are  in 
the  employ  of  the  mi.ssion.  After  all,  not  one  in  thirty  of  the 
communicant  members  of  the  church  in  North  Siam  is  in  mis- 
sion employ.  The  number  would  have  to  be  increased  of  course 
if  household  servants  were  included.  Nevertheless,  one  great 
need  of  the  missions  is  for  more  voluntary,  unpaid  Christian 
service.  So  long  as  men  receive  salaries  for  evangelistic  work 
done  in  their  own  communities  and  are  paid  whenever  they  go 
away  from  home  on  evangelistic  trips  it  will  be  hard  to  eradicate 
from  the  minds  of  the  people  the  idea  that  all  preaching  is  to  be 
paid  for  and  that  those  who  are  not  employed  are  not  to  share 
in  the  work  of  spreading  the  gospel.  Also,  although  some  of  the 
mis.sionaries  think  that  mission  emplo;\Tnent  strengthens  the 
testimony  of  the  native  preachers,  some  of  the  native  preachers 
themselves  told  us  otherwise,  saying  that  when  it  was  known 
that  they  were  employed  by  the  mission,  their  motives  were 
doubted  and  their  message  sometimes  discredited.  Human  na- 
ture is  just  the  .same  in  Siam  as  everywhere  else,  and  every- 
where else  the  church  has  found  that  the  larger  the  volume  of 
voluntary  evangelistic  work  that  she  could  command  the  greater 
her  power  and  success. 

4.  The  Training  and  Development  of  the  Church.  The  mis- 
sion and  the  presbytery  in  North  Siam  have  a carefully  prepared 
list  of  questions  to  be  asked  of  candidates  for  baptism  and  an 
admirable  manual  for  the  instruction  of  new  believers.  The 
questions  which  are  asked  have  been  prepared  in  view  of  the 
ideas  of  the  people,  and  are  as  follows: 

“Why  do  you  desire  to  be  baptized? 

“Against  what  God  have  you  sinned  in  consequence  of  which 
you  are  a sinner? 

“Do  you  repent  of  your  sin? 

“How  can  you  be  delivered  from  sin? 

“What  is  the  origin  of  sin  among  mankind? 

“What  kind  of  being  do  you  understand  God  to  be? 

“Can  you  see  God  with  your  eyes? 

“How  must  God  be  worshipped? 

“How  many  Persons  in  the  Godhead? 

“Which  Person  came  down  to  be  born  in  this  world? 

“What  did  He  do  to  deliver  mankind  from  .sin? 

“In  what  manner  did  Jesus  die? 

“How  many  days  did  He  continue  in  the  state  of  death? 

“At  the  present  time  does  .Tesus  re.side  only  in  heaven? 

“How  many  sacraments  did  Jesus  establish? 

“How  is  baptism  administered? 

117 


“TIoav  is  the  Lord’s  Supper  administered? 

“In  observiiif?  the  Lord’s  Supper,  wliat  are  we  chiefly  to  think  of? 
“What  are  the  duties  of  the  Christian  life?  (In  answering  this 
question  emphasis  is  laid  on  the  following:  Prayer;  upright 
living;  observance  of  the  Lord’s  day;  regular  attendance  at 
public  worship;  reading  and  study  of  the  Scriptures;  giving 
to  the  Lord’s  cause;  and  seeking  to  do  whatw)ever  we  are 
taught  in  the  Scriptures.)” 

These  questions,  ^\’lth  answers,  are  made  a part  of  the  manual, 
and  believers  before  reception  to  the  Lord’s  table  must  have 
memorised  this  little  catechism,  together  with  the  rest  of  the 
first  nine  pages  of  the  manual,  which  contain  the  Lord’s  Prayer, 
t1ie  Ten  Commandments  in  an  abbreviated  form,  three  hymns,  a 
child’s  ])rayer,  some  directions  as  to  Bible  study.  John  3:10  and 
Matt.  1 :21,  and  the  Apostles’  Creed.  Very  old  persons  and  other 
exceptional  cases  may  be  received  to  tbe  Lord’s  table  at  the  dis- 
cretion of  the  session,  but  they  must  be  exceptions.  The  period 
of  the  catechumenate,  during  which  the  material  indicated  mu.st 
be  memorized  and  instruction  received,  must  be  from  .six  months 
to  one  year.  The  re.st  of  the  manual  does  not  need  to  be  memor- 
ized, but  sets  forth  a statement  of  Chri.stian  customs  regarding 
burial  and  marriage.  Christian  fellowship,  the  observance  of 
the  Sabbath,  duty  to  the  government,  the  building  of  a home, 
giving,  etc.  The  manual  is  excellent. 

As  we  visited  the  various  stations,  however,  we  found  that 
there  was  a great  deal  of  laxity  as  to  the  reception  of  candi- 
dates for  baptism,  as  to  their  training  during  the  catechumenate, 
and  as  to  their  education  as  church  members.  We  heard  nothing 
of  this  manual  or  of  its  use  except  in  one  station,  although 
everywliere  we  a.sked  questions  regarding  the  very  points  that 
were  covered  by  it.  Tt  is  very  much  to  be  desired  that  the  edia- 
cational  processes  which  it  provides  for  should  be  kept  in  oper- 
ation in  all  the  churches,  and  especially  that  there  should  be  the 
care  generally  throughout  the  mis.sion  that  there  is  in  some 
parts  of  it  in  the  testing  and  training  of  candidates  for  baptism. 
At  the  present  time  two  different  practices  regarding  baptism 
pi’evail.  In  some  stations  inquirers  are  admitted  to  baptism 
who  are  not  admitted  to  the  Lord’s  Slipper,  baptism  being  used 
as  a sign  to  free  these  simple-minded  people  in  the  north  from 
the  dread  of  devils.  “To  mark  them  as  Christians.”  as  one  man 
put  it.  “as  the  lumber  companies  mark  their  logs.”  It  is  urged 
further,  that  baptism  marks  a rupture  with  the  old  life  and 
brings  the  candidate  more  fully  and  distinctly  under  instruc- 
tion. In  some  other  stations  the  mi.ssionaries  do  not  believe  in 
separating  baptism  and  the  Lord’s  Supper  in  the  case  of  adult 
inquirers  in  this  way.  They  hold  that  there  should  be  some 
other  sign  of  the  breach  with  heathenism,  that  baptism  should 
not  be  treated  as  a sacrament  of  lower  significance  and  sacred- 
ness, that  the  processes  of  education  should  preceile  baptism, 
and  that  once  baptized  the  adult  should  be  regarded  as  a full 

118 


member  of  the  church.  Otherwise,  they  hold,  there  would  be 
much  coufu.sioii  between  baptized  and  pnbaptized  catechumens, 
and  with  baptized  people,  some  of  whom  could  and  otliers  of 
whom  could  not  attend  the  Lord’s  Supper.  As  a matter  of  fact, 
this  veiy  confusion  has  arisen  and  in  at  least  one  church  bap- 
tized men  who  had  not  been  admitted  to  the  Lord’s  Supper 
came  to  it  none  the  less  and  could  not,  it  was  felt,  Avell  be  turned 
away.  I cannot  but  feel  that  tho.se  missionaries  are  right  both 
in  our  North  Siam  and  our  India  missions  who  hold  that  some 
other  form  of  marking  the  breach  with  heathenism  caii  be  ea.sily 
devised  than  the  depreciation  of  the  significance  of  baptism, 
and  who  argue  that  baptism  and  the  Lord’s  Supper  should  come 
both  at  the  end  of  the  catechumenate,  and  not  one  at  the  end 
and  the  other  at  the  beginning.  These  missionaries  may  be  in 
the  minority  in  their  missions,  bnt  their  view  is  held  by  the 
overwhelming  majority  of  missionaries  in  our  missions  as  a 
whole. 

The  missions  in  Siam  hold  to  the  sound  principle  of  excluding 
from  baptism  and  the  Lord’s  Supper  and  the  recognition  of 
cliurch  member.ship  men  living  in  polygamous  relationships. 
Where  they  believe  these  men  to  be  sincere  in  their  desire  to  es- 
cape from  polygamy  and  to  be  endeavoring  to  find  a way  to  do 
so,  they  welcome  them  to  Christian  fellowship  while  deferring 
their  admission  to  the  church. 

The  Sunday-school  work  has  been  well  developed  in  North 
Siam,  excellent  lesson  helps  are  is.sued  in  the  vernacular.  In 
South  Siam  there  are  uo  lesson  helps  at  all  in  Siamese.  All  that 
is  jtrovided  is  a small  picture  card  a few  inches  scpiare  with  a 
brief  statement  of  the  lesson  on  the  back.  In  most  of  the 
churches  there  are  no  church  prayer  meetings. 

The  j)roblem  of  church  buildings  in  most  of  the  congregations 
ought  to  be  as  capable  of  .solution  as  it  has  been  in  Korea,  where 
the  people  build  their  own  simple  houses  of  worshij),  and  in  the 
Philippine  Islands,  where  the  congregation  itself  is  easily  able 
in  the  country  groiips  to  build  a bamboo  and  thatch  church  with 
their  own  hands.  In  the  station  centers  the  ])roblem  is  a ])eculiar 
one.  If  the  station  builds  a large  church  with  mission  funds  it 
sets  the  bad  example  of  such  dependence  on  outside  gifts  in  the 
case  of  the  very  congregations  which  arc*  best  able  to  give,  and 
it  erects  before  the  eyes  of  the  peojcle  a model  of  a church  build- 
ing which  it  is  far  beyond  their  jcower  to  imitate,  so  that  the 
small  country  congregations  are  doubly  disadvantaged.  They 
feel  that  they  ought  to  try  to  get  something  like  the  station 
church  and  yet  it  is  imjcossible  for  mission  funds  to  bear  the 
burden  of  jcroviding  it  for  them.  If  on  the  other  hand,  the  sta- 
tion does  not  build  any  church,  but  holds  worship  in  such  a 
building  as  the  country  congregations  may  aspire  to,  it  is  open 
to  the  reproach  of  housing  the  worship  of  God  contemptibly, 
while  the  missionaries  themselves  are  housed,  as  they  must  be 
for  health’s  sake,  in  a way  that  seems  to  the  people  luxurious, 

119 


The  best  solution  would  seem  to  be  to  make  the  station  churches 
as  simple  as  possible  and  to  have  the  local  congregation  bear  as 
large  a share  as  possible  in  the  erection  of  the  church  so  that  it 
may  be  its  church  and  not  the  mission’s. 

In  one  of  the  South  Siam  stations  an  experienced  mis.sionary 
showed  us  one  day  his  mission  note  book.  He  had  a dozen  little 
books  containing  a thousand  names  of  inquirers  with  notes 
about  the  men  and  their  life  stories.  He  took  these  with  him 
on  his  trips  that  he  might  follow  up  the  inquirers  from  year  to 
year.  In  one  of  the  note  books  he  had  a program  for  the  evan- 
gelization of  Siam  and  the  training  of  the  church  as  the  agency 
of  evangelization.  It  was  as  follows: 

“1.  Tour  throughout  the  whole  country.  Vi.sit  every  consid- 
eraible  town  and  village.  To  all  people  w“ho  can  be  induced  to 
come  and  hear,  pre.sent  in  the  most  personal,  most  attractive, 
most  effective  way  the  offer  and  claims  of  the  Lord  Je.sus  Christ 
as  Divine  Saviour.  All  who  have  fairly  under.stood  press  for 
immediate  acceptance  in  Jesus  Christ’s  name,  with  sincere  re- 
pentance of  sin. 

“2.  Enroll  all  who  accept  as  catechumens.  Note  address  and 
family  connections  in  order  that  they  may  be  readily  found 
afterwards.  Pre.ss  for  personal  love  and  heart  loyalty  to  Jesus 
Christ.  Teach  rules  of  doctrine  as  conformity  to  His  expressed 
wishes.  Teach  the  necessity  of  daily  spiritual  worship,  Sabbath 
service  and  witness-bearing  with  a view  to  win  souls.  Emphasize 
the  privileges  of  familj^  religion  and  the  reunion  of  families 
sundered  by  death. 

“3.  Visit  all  the  catechumens  enrolled.  Ask  for  an  inter- 
view with  all  whom  they  have  persuaded  to  accept  Christ.  En- 
roll these  as  catechumens,  urging  them  to  win  others. 

“4.  Baptize  all  catechumens  who  have  proved  faithful  after 
a reasonable  time  of  te.sting  as  to  their  loyalty  to  Christ  and 
their  desire  to  win  souls.  Teach  baptized  parents  to  present 
their  children  to  the  Lord  in  baptism.  Try  to  discover  the  Lord’s 
choice  and  appoint  him  or  her  leader  of  the  disciples  thus  formed, 
pledging  them  to  regular  Sabbath  worship,  and  pledging  our- 
selves to  visit  them  as  often  as  practicable  and  remember  them 
constantly  in  prayer. 

“5.  Select  from  among  Christian  young  people  those  willing 
to  teach  a village  school  and  train  them  for  this  work  at  the 
station.  Visit  each  company  of  disciples.  Send  Siamese  evan- 
gelists to  hold  religious  services  with  them.  Send  them  pastoral 
letters  frequently  filled  with  affectionate  concern  for  their  spirit- 
ual welfare. 

“6.  Organize  such  companies  of  believers  into  Christian 
churches  as  soon  as  they  have  proved  themselves  steadfast  in 
the  faith  and  willing  to  maintain  regular  Sabbath  worship.  Seek 
for  the  Lord’s  choice  of  men  to  be  elders  of  these  churches  an- 
ticipating the  need  in  the  preparation  of  the  men.  Seek  for  the 

120 


Lord’s  choice  among  these  disciples  to  be  evangelists  and  min- 
isters of  the  gospel  and  gather  such  into  a training  school  to  be 
prepared  for  this  future  work. 

“7.  Assist  such  churches  in  choosing  and  calling  a minister 
under  the  guidance  of  the  Holy  Spirit  and  install  him  as  their 
pastor.  Direct  and  encourage  the  members  in  performing  the 
duty  of  supporting  their  pastor  both  in  the  payment  of  his  sal- 
ary and  in  co-operation  by  prayer  and  Christian  work.” 

This  is  a good  program.  Would  that  it  were  as  easy  to  carry 
out  as  it  is  to  write  down. 

5.  Work  for  Women.  Women’s  work  has  been  included  in  all 
that  we  have  been  considering,  but  something  additional  should 
be  said.  In  southern  Siam  the  women  were  said  to  be  very  ig- 
norant and  illiterate  in  the  villages,  although  quite  willing  to 
listen  to  the  gospel.  In  northern  Siam  it  was  said  that  not  one 
out  of  a thousand  of  the  non-Christian  women  could  read  in 
the  country.  Perhaps  the  proportion  would  be  more  favorable 
in  the  cities.  Among  the  Christian  women  perhaps  fifty  per  cent, 
over  fourteen  years  of  age  could  read.  As  a rule  at  least  one 
woman  in  each  Christian  household  could  read.  There  were 
very  few  native  women  engaged  in  evangelistic  work  as  Bible 
women  or  otherwise,  in  most  stations  none  at  all,  and  no  woman 
missionary  in  either  mission  is  giving  her  time  to  evangelistic 
work  among  the  women.  In  Bangkok  there  is  the  greatest  need 
and  opportunity  for  capable  Bible  women,  but  it  has  not  been 
possible  to  get  women  who  would  undertake  the  work.  Would 
it  not  be  well  to  have  in  each  mission  two  or  three  women  work- 
ing in  this  field?  It  may  be  true  that  men  missionaries  and 
evangelists  can  reach  both  men  and  women,  but  it  is  equally 
true  that  there  ai*e  some  things  that  women  can  do  for  women 
that  men  cannot  do,  and  that  tlie  minds  of  some  women  prepared 
for  and  trained  in  evangelistic  work  should  be  applied  to  the 
problems  of  women’s  work  in  Siam. 

G.  Itineration.  The  work  in  Siam  demands  extensive  and 
continuous  itineration.  There  have  always  been  in  the  missions 
men  who  gave  themselves  to  this  most  difficult,  exacting  and 
self-sacrificing  fonii  of  work  with  great  faithfulness  and  per- 
.sistence.  Dr.  McOilvary  did  so  at  the  beginning.  At  first  Mrs. 
McGilvaiw  tried  to  go  with  him,  but  found  that  she  could  not 
endure  the  physical  hard.ships  which  were  greater  in  those  days 
than  they  are  now.  For  months  and  months  Dr.  McGilvary 
would  be  away  from  home,  even  when  there  was  sickness  in  the 
little  station  of  only  two  families.  There  were  many  times  when 
he  and  Dr.  Wilson  would  both  be  away,  and  when  during  their 
absence  both  their  wives  would  be  ill  in  bed  and  have  to  send 
the  children  to  and  fro  as  messengers.  Xow  the  means  of  travel 
are  greatly  improved  and  the  improvement  makes  itineration 
both  easier  and  more  difficult.  Dr.  Eakiu  is  in  doubt  as  to 
whether  on  the  whole  the  improved  facilities  of  travel  make  the 
itinerating  less  or  more  effective.  Now  he  can  travel  the  whole 

121 


leiig'tli  of  Lis  exfeiuled  field  l)v  rail.  In  the  old  days  it  took  him 
a month  l)y  hnllock  cart,  l)iit  when  lie  came  into  each  village  on 
the  familiar  highway,  he  was  welcomed  as  part  of  the  common  life 
of  the  people,  had  time  for  the  work  that  neede<J  to  he  <lone,  and 
access  to  the  people’s  heart  for  its  doing.  Now  the  railroad 
lands  him  at  a strange  entrance  to  the  village.  He  comes  in  as 
part  of  a new  movement  not  domesticated  in  the  familiar  life 
of  the  jieojile.  Thronghont  the  mi.'<sioii  fields  this  change  may 
he  observed  and  in  many  ini.'isions  it  would  he  found  that  the 
extent  and  efficiency  of  the  itinerating  work  is  almost  in  inverse 
ratio  to  the  ea.se  and  convenience  of  travel.  Mo.st  itinerating  is 
done  where  it  is  most  difficult  to  do  it.  From  some  of  the  sta- 
tions as  much  itinerating  work  is  being  done  as  perhajis  can  he 
done  with  the  jiresent  force.  In  lower  Siam  certainly  there  are 
stations  which  should  have  more  missionaries  in  order  that  there 
may  he  more  of  such  work  done.  There  are  other  stations  where 
by  a better  mission  plan  and  clearer  mi.ssion  policy  as  to  who 
should  do  the  work  and  how  much  time  he  should  he  expecteii 
to  be  away  from  his  station,  more  itineration  might  tie  accom- 
plished. The  growth  of  the  circulation  of  the  Scriptures  in 
Siam  from  9,000  portions  in  ISffO  to  52,000  portions  in  Iffll  and 
101,000  portions  in  1912,  indicates  that  there  are  great  ]Missihili- 
, ties  of  expansion  in  the  work  of  the  diffusion  of  a knowledge  of 
riiristianity.  There  are  many  jiarts  of  the  country  that  have 
never  been  reached  and  can  never  he  reached  except  by  mission- 
ary itineration,  and  the  two  missions  should  have  such  a pro- 
gram of  work  as  would  enable  them  to  reach  the  western  side 
of  the  Bayaj)  province  so  slightly  touched,  and  those  great  areas 
of  eastern  and  western  Siam  in  the  bounds  of  the  southern  mi.s- 
sion which  have  uever  even  been  visited.  And  there  is  the  out- 
reaching  field  to  the  north. 

7.  The  Evangelistic  Problem  of  the  Bangkok  Station.  The 
Bangkok  city  and  country  field  resembles  the  Teheran  field  in 
Persia.  It  includes  the  capital  of  the  country  wdth  an  immense 
country  region  difficult  to  cover  and  occupied  by  no  other  mis- 
sionary agency.  It  is  an  appalling  resjionsibility  which  we  are 
seeking  to  carry  and  with  which  we  are  utterly  failing  to  cope. 
The  Bangkok  country  field,  as  the  population  of  the  mission  is  at 
present  distributed,  includes  at  the  lowest  estimate  three  million 
people.  The  station  has  no  one,  either  foreign  missionary  or 
native  evangelist,  touring  among  these  millions  or  stationed 
among  them.  In  the  city  of  Bangkok  itself  there  were,  accord- 
ing to  the  ceinsus  of  1909,  (i28,(iT5  ijeople.  with  238.77(5  in  the 
rest  of  the  Bangkok  Monthou.  In  this  great  city  we  have  at 
present  not  a missionary  giving  hini.self  to  the  evangelistic  work. 
All  are  engaged  in  educational  or  institutional  work  which  it 
is  possible  to  do  without  a mastery  of  the  language  in  many 
cases.  Only  two  of  the  men  in  the  Bangkok  station  had  such 
a mastery.  Dr.  McClure  at  the  head  of  the  college,  and  Dr. 
Dunlap  at  the  head  of  the  training  school.  0\ir  evangelistic 

122 


work  in  the  city  consists  of  the  First  Church  in  Snmray,  the 
old  mission  compound  on  the  otf-side  of  tlie  river,  whicli  min- 
isters only  to  its  own  small  congregation  and  has  no  surround- 
ing population  to  work  for,  the  church  at  tlie  college  which  has 
a nice  building  in  which  the  missionaries  supply  the  preaching 
and  pastoral  work,  and  the  Wang  Lang  Church  which  is  just 
calling  a pastor,  and  which  has  for  its  building  an  immense 
structure  formerly  used  as  one  of  the  gambling  halls.  In  addi- 
tion, there  is  a chapel  among  the  Chinese,  a chapel  conducted 
by  what  is  known  as  the  Conference  of  Siamese  Christians,  a 
very  useful  annual  gathering  of  the  Christians  in  south  central 
Siam,  and  another  chapel  conducted  by  the  mission.  The  con- 
ference chapel  has  the  strong  support  of  Dr.  McFarland  of  the 
Government  Medical  College.  There  are  also  the  activities  of 
the  Boon  Itt  Memorial,  an  institution  of  the  general  character 
of  a Young  Men’s  Christian  Association,  very  well  equipped  and 
efficiently  and  economically  conducted  by  the  station.  The 
churches  and  chai)els  do  their  work  on  Sunday,  there  is  no  daily 
and  constant  street  chapel  preaching.  We  are  carrying  on  far 
less  evangelistic  work  in  Bangkok  where  Ave  are  alone  in  a city 
of  over  800,000.  than  we  are  carrying  on  in  Nanking  where  we 
are  one  of  half  a dozen  missions  in  a city  of  luO.OOO,  or  tlian 
we  are  carrying  on  in  Shanghai  where  we  are  one  of  35  .societies 
who  have  altogetlier  in  the  city  35S  missionaries,  or  than  we  are 
carrying  on  in  Pyeng  Yang,  a city  of  00,000  j)eople  occupied  by 
the  Methodists  and  ourselve.s.  Indeed  I should  say  that  Ave  were 
doing  ten  or  twenty  times  as  nnicli  evangelistic  Avork  in  Pyeng 
Yang  as  Ave  are  doing  in  Bangkok.  I know  of  no  missionary 
responsibility  of  our  Board  Avhicli  should  give  it  more  grave 
concern  than  its  duty  in  this  city. 

In  the  long  conferences  with  the  Bangkok  station  the  immense 
difficulties  of  tlie  task  of  evangelistic  work  in  Bangkok  were 
recognized,  but  it  was  the  unanimous  agreement  of  all  that  it 
could  not  be  said  that  evangelistic  Avork  in  Bangkok  had  failed, 
all  that  could  be  said  was  that  it  had  not  been  adequately  tried. 
No  such  energy  and  jiersisfence  and  resources  had  been  jnit  into 
it  as  had  been  put  into  the  schools.  The  atmosjihere  of  society, 
the  (lifficulti(‘s  of  confession  of  Ghrist  on  the  jiart  of  young  men 
and  women,  esjiecially  from  good  homes,  who  had  come  to  be- 
lieve on  Him  in  our  mission  schools,  the  greatness  of  the  city, 
the  secularism  of  its  life,  the  intlnence  of  Buddhism,  these  things 
ought  not  to  be  allowed  to  daunt  us.  The  station  recognized 
all  this.  At  this  conference  and  the  conference  of  the  leading 
Siamese  Christians  afterwards,  it  Avas  generally  agreed  (1)  that 
there  ought  to  be  regular  quarterly  conferences  of  all  the  Avork- 
ei-s,  Siame.se  and  foreign,  available  for  evangelistic  Avork ; (2) 
that  there  .should  be  a regular  j)lan  of  cam])aign  for  the  occupa- 
tion and  evangelization  of  the  city  based  on  a thorough  study 
of  the  geograj)hy  and  distribution  of  ])oj)ulation ; (3)  that  all 
the  forces  of  Christianity  in  the  city  should  be  enlisted  in  such 

123 


a campaign,  not  for  a spasmodic  effort  but  for  a long  and  sus- 
tained undertaking;  (4)  that  there  should  be  workers’  training 
classes  in  the  churches  to  train  and  guide  men  and  women  in 
the  work  of  personal  evangelism,  that  these  should  be  kept  up. 
that  Christian  men  and  women  should  be  set  to  work  and  guid^ 
in  work;  (5)  that  there  should  be  regular  house  visitation,  the 
following  up  of  friends,  the  effort  to  win  back  those  who  were 
once  members  of  the  church  and  who  have  drifted  away,  and  in 
short,  an  energizing  of  the  whole  latent  body  of  Christians  in 
Bangkok  for  the  evangelistic  task;  (0)  that  there  should  be  some 
new  missionaries  appointed  for  this  work  who  were  specialh' 
qualified  and  have  been  .specially  trained  for  just  such  under- 
takings; (7)  that  the  experience  of  missions  in  other  cities 
should  be  studied  and  followed,  and  (8),  that  from  America  and 
from  the  field  the  resources  necessary  for  such  a continuous 
effort  as  this  should  be  sought. 

There  were  some  in  the  conference  of  the  Siamese  Christians 
who  recognized  the  situation  and  realized  that  it  was  wrong  not 
to  grapple  with  it,  but  who  were  discouraged  by  the  past.  They 
pointed  out  that  so  much  had  been  done  already  that  seemed  to 
be  fruitless,  that  so  many  people  knew  about  Christianty  who 
had  rejected  it.  that  people  would  be  angiw  with  a movement 
that  pursued  them  as  it  was  propo.sed  this  should,  that  there 
were  so  few  qualified  to  sliare  in  it.  ‘‘Yes.”  said  one  of  the  old- 
est and  most  devoted  men  present,  “the  work  should  be  done, 
but  I fear  it  will  not  be  in  my  lifetime.  AVe  will  have  to  lay  the 
foundations  all  over  again.  The  early  mi.ssionaries  began  well 
and  many  strong  men  were  won,  but  we  lost  those  men.”  And 
he  went  over  a long  list,  that  was  an  astonishment  to  u.s,  of  in- 
fluential people  in  Bangkok  who  had  once  been  Christians  and 
who  had  drifted  away.  “And,”  he  went  on,  “a  new  set  of  men 
must  be  won,  and  they  will  be,  but  the  effects  will  not  appear  in 
my  day.  The  foundations  of  Christianity  have  been  laid  here, 
but  I fear  I shall  not  see  the  building.”  ‘*AA’'hat  has  been  said 
as  to  the  need  and  the  discouragements,”  said  one  of  the  teach- 
ers present,  a man  to  whom  we  were  drawn  as  much  as  to  any 
of  the  Christians  we  met.  “is  time,  but  the  work  can  be  done  if 
we  Siamese  Christians  will  give  everything  to  Christ.  Some- 
times I feel  as  though  I could  and  then  I waver,  but  I know  that 
if  we  will  give  all  to  Christ  we  will  be  able  to  do  anything  for 
Christ.  I think  it  must  be  because  there  are  Christians  in  Japan 
and  Korea  who  are  ready  to  give  up  their  lives  for  Christ,  that 
the  work  goes  on  there  as  it  does.  I don’t  see  any  other  objec- 
tion in  the  way  of  this  plan  but  this.  Are  we  willing?”  The  man 
spoke  from  his  very  heart.  I have  wondered  how  he  will  him- 
self answer  the  question.  It  is  the  question  which  the  mission 
on  the  field  and  the  church  at  home  must  also  answer. — Are 
we  willing  to  pay  the  price  of  doing  our  duty  in  Bangkok?  It 
is  the  most  solemn  question  that  we  bring  back  with  us  from  our 
visit  to  Siam. 


124 


8.  The  Chinese  in  Siam,  and  the  Peninsula.  The  Chinese 
constitute  an  important  element  in  the  population  of  Siam, 
Malaysia,  and  the  French  territories  of  Annam  and  Tonkin.  In 
the  Straits  Settlements  and  Federated  Malay  States  out  of  a 
population  of  2,049,970,  915,883  are  Chinese.  In  the  Bangkok 
monthon  out  of  a population  of  867,451  the  Chinese  number 
197,918.  In  some  sections  of  Siam  the  Chinese  are  chiefly  from 
Hainan;  in  Bangkok  they  ax*e  from  Swatow,  and  it  is  said  that 
about  8,000  come  in  and  4,000  go  out  monthly.  The  Chinese 
traders  do  not  come  into  Siam  from  the  north  but  come  up  from 
the  .south  with  the  railroad,  and  their  communities  are  steadily 
increasing  throughout  Siam.  The  presence  of  these  Chinese 
presents  a great  economic  problem.  They  supply  the  labor  and 
soon  control  capital  and  trade.  Around  Bangkok,  xxdth  the  agri- 
cultural skill  which  no  other  race  can  equal,  they  have  already 
monopolized  gardening  and  agriculture,  with  the  exception  of 
rice-growing,  which  they  leave  to  the  Siamese.  The  Siamese  see 
and  fear  their  increasing  industrial  and  financial  supremacy,  but 
they  cannot  compete  with  them  and  they  cannot  dispen.se  with 
them.  There  is  a very  careful  estimate  of  the  economic  signific- 
ance of  the  Chine.^;e  invasion  of  Malaysia  in  Cabaton’s  book  on 
Java.  And  in  the  proceedings  of  the  Straits  Philosophical  So- 
ciety for  191.3-14,  l\[r.  A.  W.  Still  read  a paper  summarizing  the 
status  and  influence  of  the  Chinese  in  the  Malayan  British  terri- 
tories : 

“I  have  said  that  the  Chinese  are  the  great  industrials  of  the 
T*eninsula.  They  do  everything,  from  domestic  service  to  ship- 
building, from  making  a few  cents  a day  as  peddlers  to  making 
millions  a year  as  merchants.  Their  wealth,  their  numbers, 
their  influence  go  on  increasing.  I woxild  say  broadly  that  they 
own  half  the  property  and  three-fifths  of  the  capital  in  Malaya, 
and  that  without  them  the  social  and  industrial  fabrics  would 
collajxse.  Wliat  sort  of  a people  are  they,  who  have  settled  under 
the  broad  safeguards  of  a British  protectorate  and  prospered  .so 
amazingly?  ^lalaya  owes  much  to  them,  but  they  owe  no  less 
to  ^lalaya.  Tliere  is  no  part  of  the  world  in  which  the  Chinese 
enjoy  equal  freedom — it  is  greater  than  in  their  own  country’. 
They  make  si)lendid  settlers.  Poverty  is  a normal  experience 
in  China,  and  hard  work  comes  naturally  to  every  man  fresh 
from  that  country.  They  are  almost  abnormally  intelligent. 
They  posses,  I believe,  a higher  average  brain  capacity  than  any 
other  race  in  Ea.st  or  West.  As  a trader  the  Chinaman  has  no 
superior;  as  a mechanic  there  is  no  kind  of  work  he  cannot  be 
taught  to  do  thoroughly;  as  a miner  he  seems  to  have  some 
occult  genius  for  choosing  the  land  which  is  richest  in  mineral 
deposits;  as  a planter  he  equals  the  European,  because  he  makes 
up  for  lack  of  science  by  shrewd  economy;  as  a laborer  he  has 
patience,  industiw,  and  strength ; as  a thief  he  displays  cunning 
that  fills  detectives  with  despair.  There  are  few  European  firms 
in  Malaya  which  do  not  possess  at  least  one  Chinaman  whose 

125 


opiuioii  is  sought  daily  by  the  heads  on  all  matters  of  business, 
and  as  a rule  suc-h  men  are  splendid  and  most  loyal  senants. 

I hope  I have  said  enough  to  show  that  my  prejudices  are  not 
abnormally  narrow,  but  we  must  look  beyond  the  purely  industrial 
and  commercial  aspects  of  life.  Within  a few  years,  probably, 
the  Chinese  will  number  more  than  half  the  total  population  of 
Malaya.  I have  enumerated  their  qualities— what  are  their  de- 
fects? Will  they  make  ideal  citizens?  The  average  Chinese, 
judged  by  our  .standards,  are  cruel.  They  have  no  tenderness 
for  the  lower  animahs,  and  they  do  not  seem  to  bother  much 
about  the  .sufferings  of  their  fellow-creatures.  Then  the  ma- 
jority lack  cleanline.s.s.  I have  gone  through  most  of  the  Chin- 
e.se  quarters  of  Singapore,  and  have  found  inside  and  outside 
the  houses  an  almost  revolting  filthiness  and  indifference  to 
decency.  There  are  dreadful  slums  in  Europe,  but  most  of  them 
are  due  to  poverty  and  vice.  Among  the  riiine.se  the  chief  cause 
seems  to  be  utter  indifference.  One  may  pick  out  children  by 
the  .score  who  are  suffering  from  .scabs  which  it  neeils  no  special 
medical  knowledge  to  trace  back  to  inquire  air  and  general  filthi- 
ne.ss.  Once,  when  I was  almost  sick  with  such  sights,  my  guide 
suggested  a contrast.  We  went  to  a house,  close  at  hand,  which 
was  used  as  a Japanese  brothel,  and  I faile«l  to  find  an  inch  of 
it  that  was  not  spotlessly  clean.  The  little  women  who  blinked 
at  us  from  their  couches  were  to  all  appearance  spotlessly  clean 
al.so,  and  I found  myself  wondering  whether  their  curious  un- 
consciousness of  being  immoral  has  anything  to  do  with  this 
self-respecting  preservation  of  purity  iu  their  surroundings. 
The  Chine.se  house  of  the  same  class  are  generally  foul  and  the 
proportion  of  diseasetl  women  in  them  is  known  to  be  about 
three  times  as  great  as  among  the  Japanese;  yet  the  Chinese 
view  of  prostitution  is  similar  to  our  own.  I am  afraid  we 
mu.st  conclude  that  the  Chinese  are  not  a clean  race,  and  that, 
in  spite  of  their  high  intelligence,  it  will  be  difficult  to  make 
them  conform  to  sanitary  laws.  Of  their  morals  I do  not  care 
to  speak.  Our  own  give  us  no  warrant  to  be  very  cen.sorious.  In 
Singapore  the  great  excess  of  men  over  women  makes  normal 
dome.stic  life  impossible.  But  one  notes  that  the  .sons  of  the 
wealthy  Chinese  tend  to  degenerate,  and  throw  themselves  with 
avidity  into  every  kind  of  self-indulgence.  That  strikes  me  as 
an  almost  inevitable  consequence  of  the  narrowne.ss  of  their  out- 
look. While  exceptions  indicate  the  s])lendid  possibilities  of  the 
race,  the  average  Chinaman  met  with  here  is  amazingly  con- 
centrated on  the  making  of  money.  He  cares  little  for  what  is 
doing  in  the  world,  or  for  i)hysical  pastimes.  He  does  not  fol- 
low world-politics,  or  the  progress  of  art  or  of  science,  and  takes 
scant  intere.st  in  the  .speculations  of  philosophy  or  the  problems 
of  religion.  Among  the  women  great  natural  shrewdness  may 
be  found,  but  intellect  in  the  higher  .sense  is  not  cultivated,  and 
I doubt  whether  the  maternal  influence  is  good  for  the  sons, 
who  remain  under  their  mothers’  care  during  the  most  impres- 

126 


sionable  years  of  their  life.  If  the  wealth  of  their  parents  re- 
lieves them  from  tlie  necessity  of  making  money  for  themselves, 
they  fall  hack  upon  their  primitive  sexual  instincts,  and  make 
the  gratifying  of  these  their  chief  object  in  life.  That,  no  doubt, 
applies  to  the  sons  of  the  wealthy  anywhere,  but  I think  in  less 
degree.  One  consideration  we  must  not  overlook,  we  get  a com- 
paratively .small  proportion  of  the  best  class  of  Chinamen  here. 
The  bulk  of  our  immigrants  are  refugees  from  ])overty,  and  it 
would  be  unfair  to  judge  the  whole  Chinese  people  by  onr  sam- 
ples. Still,  one  feels  somewhat  uneasy  about  the  future  that 
the  Malayan  Chinese  will  make  for  themselves  and  for  the  coun- 
try of  their  adoption.  Climate  is  against  them,  and  social  cus- 
toms tend  to  make  the  wives  and  daughters  of  prosperous  fam- 
ilies soft,  indolent,  ignorant  slaves  of  pleasure.  The  sons  of  such 
women  .start  .somewhat  seriously  handicapped,  because  they  have 
an  inherited  tendency  to  drift  along  the  paths  of  easy  indulg- 
ence, until  they  are  gathered  to  their  fathers,  leaving  worse 
sons  behind  them.” 

The  presence  of  the  Chinese  presents  not  only  an  economic 
problem  but  also  a moral  and  religious  issue.  Very  few  of  the 
Chinese  bring  their  wives  with  them.  In  Hainan  there  has  been 
a sentiment  against  the  emigration  of  the  wives  which  has 
amounted  practically  to  a ])rohibition.  As  most  of  the  Chinese 
who  come  are  adults  who  liave  families  at  home  in  China,  and 
as  they  are  accustomed  to  take  native  wives  in  the  section  to 
which  they  come,  a unique  problem  iu  racial  morality  ari.ses. 
What  will  be  the  effect  of  such  inter-racial  polygamy  upon  the 
Chine.se  social  life  from  which  these  men  came  and  back  to 
which  many  of  them  go  either  to  stay  or  for  temporary  visits, 
and  what  will  be  the  effect  in  Siam  and  ^Malaysia  of  i>uilding 
the  new  industrial  progress  of  these  regions  upon  s.uch  a moral 
foundation?  It  is  generally  said  that  the  only  hope  of  these 
peoples  is  an  intermixture  of  Chine.se  blood.  There  is  even  a 
tradition,  declared  to  be  groundless,  that  there  is  Chinese  blood 
in  the  reigning  Siamese  dynasty.  It  is  true,  at  any  rate,  that 
the  present  kingdom  of  Siam  owes  its  independence  to  the  son 
of  a Chinaman  who  repelled  the  Hnrmese  invasion  in  the  eigh- 
teenth century  and  assumed  the  sovereign  power  only  to  be  de- 
posed on  account  of  insanity,  and  to  be  succeeded  by  the  found- 
er of  the  ])resent  royal  liouse.  But  can  that  be  a hoj)efnl  .social 
basis  for  a new  and  vigorous  race  which  is  a violation  of  sound 
morals? 

The  niis.sions  are  carrying  on  work  for  the  Chinese  in  many 
communities.  We  lande<l  in  Siam  in  the  sipialid  little  village 
of  Trang  and  were  welcomed  at  once  by  the'  little  church  of 
Christian  Chinese.  The  leading  evangelist  in  Tap  Teang  was 
of  Chinese  blood.  The  strongest  layman,  largest  giver  and  su- 
perintendent of  the  Sunday-school  in  the  Lakon  Church,  was  a 
Chinese.  In  Bangkok  there  are  two  Chinese  church  organiza- 
tions, one  maintained  by  the  Baptist  Mission  with  annual  visits 

127 


from  Swatow,  but  with  no  resident  mLssionary,  and  the  other 
our  own  church,  with  an  average  Sunday  attendance  of  31.  In 
North  Siam  the  Chinese  communities  which  have  followed  the 
railroad  and  which  are  rapidly  taking  the  control  of  trade,  have 
proved  very  accessible.  A hundred  Chinese  have  been  baptized 
in  the  Lakon  Church  and  a smaller  group  at  Prae.  It  is  in  con- 
nection with  these  Chinese  that  some  of  the  North  Siam  stations 
are  pursuing  the  policy  of  baptism  without  admission  to  the 
Lord’s  Supper.  In  .some  cases  there  has  been  question  as  to  tbe 
motives  of  the  candidates  and  it  has  .seemed  best  to  bring  them 
part  way  and  then  wait  to  test  them.  They  are  anxious  for  let- 
ters which  they  can  carrj’  with  them  on  their  trading  journeys 
and  which  they  seem  to  value  as  an  introduction  to  officials  and 
a form  of  protection.  Their  admission  to  tbe  church  raises  at 
once  the  question  of  Sabbath  obseiwance,  as  very  few  of  them 
are  ready  to  clo.se  their  shop.s,  some  on  the  ground  that  they 
cannot  afford  it,  others  because  they  say  they  are  only  agents 
and  not  principals  in  the  business.  Some  who  do  leave  their 
shops  on  Sunday  also  leave  their  wives  behind  to  continue  the 
busine.ss.  This  laxity  is  already  creating  difficulty.  One  of  the 
older  missionaries  writes,  “In  this  country  one  of  the  distinc- 
tive features  whereby  a Christian  is  recognized  is  in  the  way  he 
keeps  Sunday.  He  is  not  known  as  a Christian  unless  he  does 
keep  the  day.  The  Chinese  who  are  baptized  do  not  pretend  to 
trA’  to  keep  the  day  here  any  more  than  the  Christian  Chinese 
do  in  China.  All  that  amounts  to  is.  as  you  know,  to  attend 
worship  once  on  Sunday  if  the  service  hour  does  not  interfere 
too  much  with  their  business.  One  of  those  men  who  were  bap- 
tized in  Prae  the  Sunday  before  you  were  there,  went  out  from 
the  service  in  which  he  was  baptized,  got  his  wares  and  M’ent 
past  the  Mission  Compound  tooting  his  horn  and  peddling  just 
the  same  as  any  other  day.  They  do  not  pretend  to  close  their 
shops  on  Sunday.  While  they  are  at  church  their  wives  are 
selling  goods  in  their  shops.  Now  this  is  having  a bad  effect  on 
the  Laos  Christians,  let  alone  the  hanu  it  does  the  Chinese 
themselves.  The  Christian  market  women  are  beginning  to  go 
to  market  on  Sunday  and  pointing  to  the  Chinese  Christians  as 
examples  of  ‘what  is  right  for  one  is  for  the  other.’  It  is  a seri- 
ous matter  and  action  was  taken  at  last  mission  meeting  direct- 
ing that  the  Chinese  should  be  disciplined  the  same  as  a Laos 

in  the  same  case. seemed  to  be  the  worst  off  at  that  time, 

but  the  last  news  I had  from  there  nothing  had  been  done  to 
right  the  matter.  I hope  the  matter  was  brought  up  and  dis- 
cussed, for  we  certainly  need  advice  and  possibly  some  definite 
action  taken.”  We  shall  refer  to  this  question  in  our  report  on 
China. 

How  to  ascertain  the  motives  of  inquirers  and  how  far  to  go 
in  scrutinizing  and  criticizing  them,  are  not  simple  questions. 
In  the  case  of  the  Chinese  it  is  especially  difficult  for  the  mis- 
sionaries to  conduct  satisfactory  examinations  as  they  do  not 

128 


know  Chinese,  and  as  the  Chinese  have  a very  imperfect  knowl- 
edge of  Siamese.  For  the  same  reasons  it  is  difficult  to  give  the 
Chinese  proper  ])reparatorv  instruction  and  it  is  to  he  feared 
that  in  some  ca.ses  Chine.se  have  been  baptized  without  a .suf- 
ficient knowledge  of  what  Christianity  is  and  what  the  obliga- 
tions are  which  they  are  assuming.  " Tliis  evil  will  be  rectified  as 
soon  as  the  Chinese  acquire  sufficient  Siamese  to  be  instructed 
or  as  soon  as  the  missions  have  a few  thoroughly  reliable  Chin- 
e.se  evangelists  of  whom  one  or  two  are  already  in  view.  There 
is  no  difficulty  in  communication  in  the  case  of  Siamese  or  Lao 
converts,  however,  and  there  the  question  is  as  to  how  high  and 
exacting  the  standard  of  motive  should  be.  There  are  some  who 
.say  in  many  fields  fhat  too  much  importance  should  not  be  at- 
tached to  j)urity  and  sj)irituality  of  motive.  They  point  out  that 
interest  in  one  fonu  or  another  draws  a great  many  people  into 
the  churches  at  home  and  will  do  .so  even  where,  and  that  the  im- 
portant thing  on  the  mission  field  is  fo  gef  men  and  women  fo 
break  with  heathenism,  to  commit  themselves  to  Christianity  and 
fo  puf  fheinselves  under  ifs  instrucfion.  They  will  develop,  it 
is  argned,  and  in  any  case  their  children  will  be  in  the  church, 
and  will  be  brought  up  under  its  influence  and  ideals.  This  is 
whaf  many  Roman  Cafholics  say.  Tn  an.swer  to  a question  re- 
garding the  discii)line  of  ex-communication,  one  of  the  Roman 
Catholic  missionaries  in  Siam  replied  that  they  were  ready  to 
tolerate  in  the  fathers  of  families  what  they  would  not  in  un- 
married men,  for  the  sake  of  keeping  the  children  under  the 
control  of  the  church.  It  can  be  answered,  of  course,  that  the 
kind  of  church  that  is  ju-odnced  in  this  way  may  not  have  all 
the  influence  fo  exert  \i]»on  children  which  is  dasired. 

The  j)roblem  arises  among  the  Lao,  however,  in  a veiw  practi- 
cal and  not  a theoi-etical  foi-m.  The  Chieng  ^fai  missionaries 
e.specially  have  had  to  deal  with  it  in  comiection  with  the  re- 
cent ipalaria  epidemic.  This  epidemc  was  sweeping  away  mul- 
titude's in  the  Chieng  Mai  plain.  Many  had  no  medicines  and 
could  not  get  them,  and  many  of  these  and  many  others  would 
not  take  tlie  medicine  in  any  case,  out  of  fear  of  the  evil  spirits. 
In  .seeking  to  deal  witli  the  situation  the  missionaries  had  a 
limite<l  amount  of  money  with  which  to  buy  quinine.  They  felt 
that  this  .should  be  given  first  of  all  to  needy  Christian  fam- 
ilies for  whom  the  church  was  responsible,  and  to  those  who 
were  already  in  more  or  less  alliance  with  the  church.  Further- 
more, unless  the  sufferers  would  agree  to  throw  out  the  spirit 
.shrines  and  abandon  the  sj)irit  worship  altogether  there  was  no 
as.surance  that  they  would  follow  the  directions  given  with  the 
me<licine.  For  the  sake  of  healing  the  peo])le  and  staying  the 
epidemic  it  was  necessary  to  nvpiire  that  those  who  received 
the  im*dicine  should  ju-omise  to  break  with  the  spirits,  which 
in  the  eyes  of  the  p(*o]de.  of  course,  and  in  their  own  eyes,  meant 
that  they  would  now  regard  thein.selves  as  Christians.  On  two 
accounts,  accordingly, — for  the  efficiency  of  the  medical  treat- 

129 


5 — 'Report  of  Deputation. 


inent  and  to  discliai-fje  the  obligations  of  the  chTirc-h  to  its  own 
people, — an  identification  of  t'hristian  profession  witli  the  re- 
ceipt of  malaria  relief  grew  np  which,  if  it  had  not  been  wisely 
handled  and  controlled,  would  have  brought  in  many  spurious 
Ohristians  into  the  church.  Many  hundre<ls  have  been  baptize<l 
as  a result  of  the  malaria  relief  work,  and  the  danger  is  not  al- 
together passed,  but  the  work  has  been  in  the  hands  of  mission- 
aries as  wise  and  trustworthy  as  any  who  could  be  found,  and 
they  are  doing  their  best  to  take  full  advantage  of  such  an  oppor- 
tunity without  debasing  the  motive  which  brings  pefjple  into  the 
church,  and  imposing  on  the  church  a burden  of  unreal  j>rofes- 
sors.  One  cannot  but  sympathize  deeply  with  the  mis.sionaries 
in  their  task  in  di.scriminating  between  what  is  false  and  what 
is  true,  and  at  the  .same  time  (|uenching  no  sanoking  flax. 

VI.  The  Educatiomil  Work  of  the  MisHkmx.  In  many  i-espects 
the  educational  problems  of  the  two  missions  are  similar  and 
the  similarity  will  increa.se.  In  one  respect,  however,  they 
have  been  quite  distinct.  As  one  of  the  missionaries  re- 
marke^l  in  the  discus.sion  on  mission  policy  in  Chieng  Mai:  “It 
has  been  .said  that  we  have  no  definite  mis.sion  policy.  Purely 
that  is  a mistake.  We  have  had  a very  clear  policy  with  regard 
to  our  school.s.  We  began  with  the  Christian  community  and 
then  established  school.s  for  Chri.stian  children,  and  this  has 
been  our  policy  always  and  throughout  the  mis.sion.  We  have 
not  excluded  non-Christians,  but  the  schools  were  not  establish- 
ed for  them  nor  primarily  as  an  evangelistic  agency.  Contrast 
with  this  the  policy  of  the  South  Siam  Mission,  where  the  schools 
have  been  not  for  the  children  of  the  Christian  community  but 
foi-  non-Christians.  They  have  been  in  the  main  self-supporting 
('ducational  institutions  with  a fine  missionary  sjiirit  and  j)ur- 
po.se,  but  often  with  few  Christians.  With  us.  except  in  one 
.station,  ninety  per  cent,  of  our  pupils  have  been  Chi-istians,  and 
at  the  same  time  we  have  not  failed  in  .self-.snpport  in  our  North 
Siam  Chri.stian  .schools.”" 

The  annual  reports  of  the  Board  set  forth  the  facts  with  re- 
gard to  the  location  and  work  of  the  various  schools.  The  pur- 
pose of  such  a report  as  this  is  not  to  deal  with  these  things, 
but  with  the  general  and  continuing  problems  with  which  the 
schools  must  deal. 

Some  of  the  le.ssons  and  problems  of  the  educational  work 
in  North  Siam,  as  we  had  opportunity  to  study  it.  were  these: 

( 1 ) The  proportion  of  non-Christiau  students  which  a mi.ssion 
.school  can  carry  and  absorb.  With  possibly  one  exception,  the 
schools  of  the  mi.ssion  were  in  no  danger  of  attempting  to  carry 
too  large  a non-Christian  element.  The  Christian  sentiment  of 
the  schools  is  able  to  maintain  its  ascendency  and  to  determine 
the  atmosphere  of  the  schools.  (2i  The  ne^  of  watchful  pas- 
toral })ur.suit  of  the  old  students,  especially  tho.se  who  have 
comi)leted  the  course  and  who  should  be  kept  in  touch  with  the 
life  of  the  school  and  have  the  help  of  counsel  and  inspiration 

130 


from  their  old  teachers.  (3)  The  adaptation  of  education  to  the 
actual  living  conditions  of  students.  One  wonders,  for  example, 
how  much  our  Lao  girls  will  use  English  when  they  return  to 
their  village  homes.  It  is  necessary  to  teach  English,  but  such 
teaching  makes  it  all  the  more  our  duty  to  make  sure  that  the 
education  that  we  give  is  in  all  other  regards  such  as  will  en- 
able pupils  to  go  happily  back  into  their  own  life  and  make  it 
better.  (4)  The  value  of  clear  ideals  and  aims  in  onr  school 
work  and  the  importance  of  making  these  actnaly  effective.  Such, 
for  example,  as  thoroughness  of  teaching,  depth  and  persistence 
of  Christian  inflneiice  on  the  scliool  and  on  the  individual,  the 
fitting  of  tlie  training  to  the  lives  and  capacities  of  the  pupils. 
(5)  The  importance  of  correlating  the  educational  work  of  the 
mission  so  as  to  liave  a unified  working  scheme  for  the  whole 
mission,  so  as  to  relate  the  school  work  to  all  tlie  other  work, 
especially  the  work  of  itineration  and  the  provision  of  trained 
helpers.  Thus  far  onr  evangelists  and  other  workers  seem  to  be 
more  naturally  drawn  from  the  ranks  of  adults  who  have  been 
converted  than  from  the  scliools  where  the  boys  of  the  church 
are  trained. 

Onr  two  leading  scliools  in  the  North  Siam  Mission  are  the 
Prince  Koyal’s  College  and  the  Girls’  School  in  Chieng  Mai. 
Both  these  schools  are  dealing  earnestly  with  their  work  and 
striving  to  bring  it  into  accord  with  the  best  missionary  prin- 
ciples. “Onr  aim,”  said  Mr.  Ilarris  in  the  discussion,  “has  been 
to  establi.sh  primary,  parochial,  self-snpjiorting  schools  under  the 
local  churches,  next  to  have  secondary  schools  under  the  mission 
stations,  and  third,  a college  in  Chieng  ^lai.  Onr  effort  is  to  pro- 
duce Christian  character  in  onr  students,  and  to  send  out  men 
who  will  be  Christian  leaders.  Only  a small  fraction  of  boys  will 
go  thi-ongh  the  whole  system  of  onr  schools,  but  if  onr  aim  is  char- 
acter and  n.sefnlness,  then  wherev(*r  a boy  may  drop  out,  he  will  be 
worth  all  that  we  have  expended  on  him.  Onr  system  needs  devel- 
oi»ment  and  co-ordination,  but  we  have  some  of  it.  We  follow 
the  gf)V(*rnment  course  and  examinations.  This  is  <iOod  for  ns 
and  for  onr  schools,  and  it  helps  the  government,  who  have 
assisted  ns  in  many  ways  in  tln^  development  of  «)nr  ])lans.  When 
onr  students  fii-st  began  to  tak(‘  the  government  examinations, 
only  one  passed,  the  next  year  foidy  jter  cent.,  the  next  ninety, 
and  now  onr  school  excells  the  government  school  on  its  own 
ground.  Entil  i-ecently  we  had  a school  that  was  merely  one 
big  family,  and  one  knew  them  all  and  could  easily  keep  track 
of  the  graduates.  Now,  with  more  boys,  it  is  a harder  task,  but 
we  have  them  all  card  catalogued  and  I have  a drawer  of  mem- 
oranda about  the  old  boys.  It  is  not  easy,  howevei-,  t(»  keep  up 
correspondence,  e.specially  with  the  non-Christian  boys.  For 
SIX  years  we  have  had  annually  a noi-mal  institute  f(»r  the  tend* 
ei's  of  the  mission.  This  last  year  sixty  teachers  came  for  two 
weeUs.  soiiK*  walking  a hnndi-ed  miles.  We  led  them  and  helped 
a very  few,  but  most  of  them  came  at  their  own  exjtense.”  MLss 

131 


\'aii  Vraiikeii,  wlio  is  in  diai-j^e  of  llie  Oirls’  ScLool,  adde<l, 
“Tliere  ai-e  not  many  lines  ojien  to  women  in  this  land.  There 
are  very  few  wlio  do  not  eventually  j;o  into  their  own  homes. 
Onr  ideal,  therefore,  is  to  fit  yonii};  women  for  the  home  life 
in  northern  Siam,  with  advanced  traininj;  for  a few.  We  teach, 
accordingly,  liyffiene,  cookin}^,  and  sewiii};,  in  addition  to  the 
fiovernment  cour.se,  which  is  a three-years’  primary  coni-se  for 
fi'irls,  followed  by  alternative  courses,  f^eneral  and  industrial. 
Our  su])reme  j)urpo.se  is  the  development  of  riiristian  character. 
We  f>et  all  we  can  in  self-sn]»j)ort  and  feel  the  necessity  of  know- 
in":  flip  homes  from  which  the  <;irls  come,  in  order  to  be  able  to 
judjte  how  much  each  one  oufjht  to  he  able  to  "iw.  huf  we  refuse 
no  one  on  aeconnt  of  jtoverty.  As  to  non-f^hristians.  we  have 
a small  ])ro])ortion  who  are  drawn  into  the  whole  life  of  the 
school.” 

In  the  South  Siam  Mis.sion  the  two  conspicuous  schools  have 
been  the  Banjfkok  riiristiaTi  Tollege  and  the  Wan<;  Lanjr  School 
for  txirl.s,  witli  .smaller  schools  at  all  the  other  stations.  The  fol- 
lowing questions  were  presentwl  at  the  Bangkok  Conference  by 
Dr.  McClure,  as  .setting  forth  some  of  the  problems  that  con- 
front our  higher  educational  work  in  South  Siam; 

“AVhat  is  the  Board’s  policy  relative  to  this  and  similar  mis- 
sion schools? 

“1.  In  mission  e<lucational  work  .dionld  emphasis  be  laid  on 
])rimarv  work  jtrincipally,  or  on  higher  grade  work? 

“2.  If  both  are  desirable,  what  is  the  chief  aim  of  higher 
grade  work? 

“3.  Does  experience  show  that  such  schools  are  largely  in- 
stnimental  in  producing  ministers  and  other  Christian  workers? 

‘‘4.  If  so,  what  methods  have  been  found  successful? 

“o.  If  not  ill  all  such  schools,  what  are  the  reasons  for  the 
failure? 

Have  such  schools  an  imjiortant  mission  aside  from  the 
immediate  production  of  Christian  teachers  and  workers? 

“7.  Should  such  schools  follow  closely  the  Courses  of  In- 
struction provided  for  the  government  schools  of  the  countries 
where  they  exist? 

‘‘S.  Should  mission  schools  aim  to  keej*  in  close  touch  with 
the  government  schools,  in  matters  of  inspection,  examinations, 
athletics,  etc.? 

Are  such  relations  and  the  kind  of  competition  con.se- 
queut  thereon,  conducive  to  the  best  missionary  results? 

“10.  Might  not  a more  inde])endent  but  friendly  rivalry  be 
more  favorable  to* mission  results,  as  well  as  to  the  name  of  the 
school  ? 

“11.  Is  it  desirable  to  attempt  college  work  in  mission 
schools? 

“12.  Should  college  work  be  attempted  in  the  Bangkok  Chris- 
tian College? 


132 


“13.  What  additional  equipment  would  be  necessary;  and 
could  siicli  eciuiinnent  be  made  available? 

“14.  In  self-sni)])orl in'*'  schools,  wilb  imukapiate  equipment 
and  need  of  constant  imi>rovement,  slioub,!  any  and  all  balances 
from  revenues  be  available  to  meet  such  needs? 

“15.  Does  the  Bano'kok  Cln-istian  .Colleg'e,  bein«;  the  only 
evangelical  riiristian  school  for  bigb  grade  instruction  to  young 
men  in  south  Siam,  and  being  located  in  the  Oa])ital  of  Siam, 
and  in  immediate  com])etition  and  coni])arison  witli  all  the  high- 
er institutions  of  learning  of  the  government  and  other  systems, 
occupy  a place  of  special  im])ortance  demanding  s]>ecial  equip- 
ment and  endowment,  and  sjunuly  enlargement  to  an  extent  that 
comparison  may  be  favorable  and  competition  reasonably  suc- 
cessful ? 

“1(5.  If  sucli  is  not  our  aim  and  ]»ur])Ose,  is  Ibere  any  suf- 
ficient rea.son  for  the  conlinuance  of  the  Bangkok  (’bristian  Col- 
lege? Do  j)re.sent  conditions  and  results  justify  the  engagement 
of  so  large  a number  of  mission  workers?  Tbongb  we  are  bold- 
ing our  own  and  growing  slowly,  is  our  ])resent  ])osition  not  an 
unfavorable  one,  inviling  a measure  of  ’conteni])t  rather  than 
coni])elling  the  re.sj)ect  and  making  j)o.ssible  that  influence  in 
educational  matters  that  a larger  institution  rightly  conducted 
would  have?” 

Some  of  these  (piestions  were  a,nswei-ed  in  the  conference,  oth- 
ers will  be  toncluHl  nj)on  in  the  following  discussion  or  are  dealt 
with  in  other  .s<‘ctions  of  these  rejan'ts.  It  should  be  said  now, 
however,  that  we  have  no  (piestion  as  to  the  desirability  of  the 
maintenance  of  the  Bangkok  Christian  College,  with  no  ambition 
for  magnitude,  but  with  a ])Ui-j)os(‘  to  i)rovi(]e  in  it  the  be.st  edu- 
cation in  (piality  which  can  be  obtaiiu'd  in  Bangkok.  The  col- 
lege and  the  Wang  Lang  School  are  onr  doors  of  access  to 
(Masses  of  jK*opl(‘  in  Bangkok  to  whom  we  could  not  otlumwise 
bring  the  gosj)el,  and  while  1 Ihiidi  none  of  their  graduates  are 
in  the  service  of  the  church  nor  in  the  evangelistic  work  of  the 
mission,  the  schools  have  done  a gi-(‘at  work.  Tluw  have  raised 
tij)  some  excellent  timchers  for  both  missions  and  their  influence 
both  directly  and  indinwlly  in  the  life  of  the  country  has  been 
v(u-y  gr(‘at.  The  Wang  Lang  School  has  grown  so  that  its  pres- 
ent (piarters  are  entirely  inadtHpial(‘.  No  more  adjoining  land 
is  obtainabl(‘,  and  to  move  (dsewherc*  would  take  the  school  away 
from  an  (excellent  location  to  a site  that  might  i)rove  to  be  un- 
fortunately chosen.  Tlieia*  are  sonu*  who  would  like  to  retain 
the  ])r(“sent  site  for  a branch  of  tin-  school  and  (establish  the 
main  institution  elsewheia*.  This  would  involve  a large  outlay 
of  money,  however,  to  j)i-ovide  the  new  ]dant.  It  is  evident,  how- 
ever, that  something  should  be  done  in  the  way  of  enlargement 
of  facilities  unU*ss  the  policy  of  limited  attendance  is  to  be 
adoj)ted  not  as  the  enforc(*d,  hut  as  the  self-chosen  principle  of 
the  school.  The  ([uestiou  of  the  future  of  the  institution  will 

133 


(loubtlesK  come  befoie  llie  Board,  wlieii  tlie  minds  of  the  mis- 
sionaries ill  Banjikok  are  clearer  as  to  the  best  course  to  jmrsue. 

t.  Tliese  two  sclioids  in  Bangkok  are  entirely  self-siijiiiortiiift 
and  many  of  the  other  schools  of  the  missions  are  nearly  so.  In 
the  early  days  pupils  were  payin<j  nothin<>',  or  next  to  nothing, 
and  at  the  outset  in  many  of  the  schools  everything  was  given 
the  jnijiils,  including  their  clothes.  The  transition  from  free  to 
sniijiorted  education  was  not  ea.sy,  just  as  the  transition  is  not 
easy  from  de])endeuce  to  self-su])i)ort  in  the  evangelistic  work. 
Mrs.  McGilvary  told  us  that  when  charges  were  tirst  made  in 
the  Chieng  ^lai  Girls’  School  the  attendance  dropjied  from  100 
to  ob.  When  Miss  ('ob^  came  to  Wang  Lang  only  15  pujiils 
were  jiaying,  and  they  but  a few  ticals,  although  at  home  hun- 
dreds of  ticals  were  sjient  ujioii  the  hair-cutting  ceremony  of 
the.se  same  children.  Now  in  this  school  the  charge  is  20  ticals 
a month,  and  Miss  Cole  is  convinced  that  such  self-support  Joes 
not  in  the  least  hinder  the  work  of  the  school  in  its  Christian 
aims,  while  it  enables  the  school  to  take  more  charity  pupils 
than  was  jmssible  before  the  era  of  self-snjijiort.  Miss  Cole  says 
that  the  jieojile  have  abundance  of  means,  that  the  girls  come 
with  so  much  jewelry  that  they  have  to  order  it  taken  off. 
There  is  a feeling  in  lioth  missions,  however,  that  the  principle 
of  .self-support  is  in  danger  of  supplanting  other  principles 
which  are  more  important.  It  is  clear  that  each  school  should 
attain  as  large  a measure  of  self-support  as  it  can,  but  only  on 
condition  that  this  is  done  without  sacrificing  its  distinctive 
character  as  a Christian  school  or  limiting  the  aggre.ssive  u.se  of 
the  school  as  a missionary  agency.  Nor  should  the  effort  to 
achieve  self-.support  lead  to  the  exclusion. of  the  children  of  the 
Christian  community.  They  certainly  should  not  be  exempt  just 
because  they  are  Christians  from  doing  all  they  can  towards  the 
support  of  the  .school,  but  neither  should  the  schools  be  made 
socially  in  the  interest  of  .self-.support  what  the  mission  would 
not  make  them  in  the  interest  of  education  and  evangelism. 

2.  The  evangelistic  influence  of  the  schools.  If  the  Bangkok 
.schools  are  limited  to  ('hri.stiau  students  they  will  cea.se  to  be 
self-supporting  and  will  not  have  enough  students  to  make  it 
possible  to  conduct  them  as  institutions  of  the  present  grade. 
The  choice  must  be  made,  accordingly,  between  continuing  the 
schools  with  an  overwhelming  jireponderance  of  non-Christian 
students  or  abandoning  them  altogether  in  their  present  char- 
acter. In  the  college  20  out  of  200  boys  are  Christians.  It  is 
the  same  (piestion  that  has  had  to  be  faced  in  many  other  fields 
and  which  has  always  been  answered  in  onr  mi.ssions,  with  one 
or  two  excejitions,  in  a single  way,  namely,  that  while  it  is  bet- 
ter to  have  the  school  grow  out  of  the  Christian  community  and 
rest  upon  it,  and  have  a great  preponderance  of  Christian  stu- 
dents, nevertheless,  when  there  is  no  Christian  commnnity  and 
when  the  most  earnest  evangelistic  work  has  not  yet  produced  it, 
it  is  legitimate  to  use  education  as  itself  an  evangelistic  instru- 

134 


ment  and  to  maintain  it  also  for  the  many  secondary  influences 
which  it  exerts  and  which  are  a proper  part  of  the  missionary’ 
endeavor.  These  schools  ought  not  to  be  given  up,  accordingly, 
but  eveiw  effort  .should  be  continue<l  to  transform  them  into  the 
other  type  of  .schools,  by  developing  a Christian  community, 
and  to  this  end  the  schools  them.selves  should  be  used  even  more 
directly  and  positively  as  agencies  of  evangelization.  It  should 
be  clearly  understood  with  parents  when  children  are  admitted 
to  the  schools,  that  the  schools  will  do  everything  in’ their  power 
to  make  Christians  out  of  their  jjupils ; and  in  the  schools,  by 
the  character  of  all  the  teaching,  by  the  atmosphere  and  exer- 
ri.ses  of  tlie  school,  by  jtersonal  work  with  the  students,  no  effort 
should  be  spai-ed  to  win  them  to  the  Chri.stian  life,  and  as  .soon 
as  they  are  mature  enough  to  Christian  confession.  We  were 
interested  to  .see  the  alnutst  preponderant  use  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment in  much  of  tlie  religious  teaching,  which  is  not  unnatural 
in  a land  where  it  is  necessary  to  supply  the  whole  theistic  back- 
ground. but  we  w<tndere<l  whether  there  might  not  be  a larger 
and  more  personally  evangelistic  u.<e  made  of  2sew  Testament 
teaching. 

The  evangelistic  influence  (rf  the  .scIkmjIs  is  not  merely  a 
matter  of  dealing  with  the  students  while  in  the  schools,  it  is 
eipially  neces.sary  to  follow  them  ujt  afterwards.  If  is  ea.sier  to 
get  boys  and  girls  in  the  schools  in  Siam  to  accept  Chri.st  with 
sincerity  while  they  are  in  school,  than  it  is  to  hold  them  to  the 
('hristian  faith  after  they  leave.  Many  have  been  lost  to  the 
church  because  of  the  lack  of  such  .supp(»rt.  and  many  have 
drifte<l  away  for  the  want  of  enlistment  in  .service.  Most  of 
the  graduates  of  the  Bangkok  College  have  been  C'hristians,  bur 
have  not  become  attached  to  the  church  on  leaving.  We  found 
the  Methodist  mi.ssionaries  in  the  Malaysia  conference  very 
much  exercise<l  over  the  great  wastage  from  the  .school  work. 
They  state<l  that  UO.OdO  stmlents  had  gone  through  their  schools 
and  that  they  had  track  of  only  oOd  of  them.  l)r.  Denyes,  the 
S<*<  retary  of  the  Boaril  of  Education  of  the  Methodist  Malaysia 
Conference,  dealt  with  the  imj»ortance  of  conserving  school  re- 
sults in  (me  of  his  I’ecent  rejiorts,  of  which  he  gave  us  a coj»y: 

“Within  the  mission  circle  it  is  stating  a truism  to  say  that 
we  are  not  carrying  on  educational  work  for  the  sake  of  edu- 
cation. While  education  is  a worthy  end  in  itself,  to  us  it  is 
but  a means  to  an  end,  and  that  end  is  the  .salvation  of  human 
.souls  and  the  building  up  of  a Christian  civilization.  The  work 
done  with  and  for  the  boy  or  girl  in  school  is  not  the  whole 
task  set  before  us.  In  reality  it  is  only  the  beginning.  We  are 
responsible,  not  only  for  bringing  every  possible  spiritual  power 
to  bear  uimui  the  child  and  the  parents  while  the  child  is  with 
us  in  the  school,  but  also  for  following  him  up  in  his  whole 
after  life,  till  he  shall  have  become  what  we  start  out  to  make 
him,  namely,  an  upright,  honorable,  Chri.stian  citizen. 

“It  is  useless  for  us  to  shut  our  eyes  to  the  fact  that  the  re- 

135 


unions  outcomes  of  our  scliool  work  as  rej)resentefJ  in  our  church 
meuiiiershij)  leave  much  lo  he  desire<l.  Tlie  evaufrelislic  work 
and  the  educational  work  of  our  mission  hav^e  run  in  separate 
cliaunels.  Earnest  and  faitliful  Asiatic  i)reachers  have  sought 
and  won  a goodly  numher  of  the  ti-ansient,  coolie  classes.  The 
teaching  force  has  in  many  instances  worked  earnestly  and 
faithfully  with  the  children  in  schools.  But  very  rarely  has  it 
happened  that  the  family  to  which  the  .student  belonged  has 
been  besieged  as  a family  by  both  the  educational  and  the  evan- 
gelistic forces.  The  transient  coolie  is  converted,  but  he  passes 
on  to  where  money  is  to  be  made  and  leaves  our  churches  empty. 
The  boy  in  school  is  interested  and  wants  to  be  baptized.  His 
parents,  being  unaccpiainted  with  Chri.stianity,  opj)Ose  the  boy’s 
wi.shes.  The  boy  is  too  young  to  take  an  independent  .stand.  He 
leaves  the  .school,  no  record  is  kept  of  his  after  life,  and  the  har- 
vest is  never  gathered. 

“It  is  a matter  of  deep  regret  that  after  twenty-nine  years  of 
school  work  there  are  not  in  all  our  churches  in  Malay.sia  fifty 
men  and  women  over  twenty-five  years  of  age  who  have  ever  at- 
tended our  schools.  Such  are  the  facts.  It  is  doubtful  if  it 
would  be  worth  while  to  di.scuss  how  conditions  came  to  be  as 
they  are.  But  it  is  of  vital  importance  that  steps  be  taken 
immediately  to  develop  some  constructive  plan  for  intelligent. 
aggre.ssive  team  work.  But  no  plan  will  work  itself.  If  the 
educational  forces  are  to  ally  themselves  with  the  evangelistic 
forces  for  the  common  end,  the  first  to  feel  the  burden  will  be 
the  school  principals.  These  persons  are  already  .so  absorbed 
with  details  that  co-operation  with  the  church  organizations 
becomes  difficult.  And  yet  as  a Board  we  are  warranted  in 
pressing  upon  them  the  thought  that  our  justification  for  pour- 
ing into  our  schools  the  best  years  of  the  young  life  of  our 
choicest  men  and  women  is  this  very  work  of  evangelization.  If 
our  work  is  done  when  the  government  examination  is  ])as.sed, 
we  may  well  ask  the  (piestion  which  has  lost  to  our  mission  a 
goodly  number  of  noble  mi.ssionaries,  ‘Is  it  worth  while?’ 

“The  fir.st  step  in  this  work  is  a knowledge  of  our  people.  But 
in  visiting  our  .schools  I have  found  that  in  fully  half  of  them 
only  very  imperfect  records  are  kept  of  the  boys  and  girls  who 
are  admitted.  In  a few  places  the  only  record  kept  is  the  daily 
register  in  which  is  recorded  barely  the  name  of  the  child;  not 
even  the  address  being  knowm.  In  no  place  is  any  adequate 
effort  made  to  keep  track  of  ex-students.  I have  not  yet  found 
a school  where  a principal  has  left  to  his  siiccessor  a list  of 
families  which  should  be  cultivated.  Hence  each  new  principal 
must  begin  anew  to  create  a constituency.  1 have  found  no 
school  where  the  evangelistic  agencies  have  been  given  visiting 
lists  of  the  families  of  those  children  whose  interest  has  been 
awakened. 

“These  conditions  lead  me  to  offer  the  following  recommen- 
dations:— 


136 


“1.  That  each  school  be  required  to  keep  uuiforiii,  simple 
3'et  conijilete  records  of  all  students  entered,  with  such  personal 
notations  as  shall  be  deemed  advantageous. 

“2.  That  in  the  larger  schools  at  least  an  alumni  secretary 
be  appointed  who  shall  be  required  to  keep  as  complete  and  ac- 
curate records  as  possible  of  all  ex-students. 

“3.  That,  with  a view  to  creating  an  esprit  de  corps  and  the 
extension  of  school  influence,  the  ])rincipals  be  urged  to  consider 
the  possibilities  of  ex-student  organizations. 

“4.  That  the  principals  of  the  four  largest  boys’  schools  be 
aj)pointed  a committee  with  power  to  formulate  rules  for  aii 
annual,  Methodist,  inter-.school  oratorical  conte.st. 

“5.  That  a committee  be  a]»j>oiuted  to  formulate  a code  of 
religious  instruction  to  be  used  in  our  schools. 

“0.  That  at  the  beginning  of  each  year  the  Secretary  of  Edu- 
cation shall  be  provided  with  a list  of  all  students  in  the  sev- 
enth .standard  and  special  classes,  with  their  addresses  and  re- 
ligious .standing. 

“This  last  recommendation  may  not  at  once  reveal  its  full 
value.  But  T believe  that  with  such  a mailing  list  the  secre- 
tain-’s  ottice  can  be  made  of  very  great  value  in  bringing  to  the 
attention  of  up])er  class  students  the  need  of  higher  education 
in  our  j)o.st-rambi-idge  clas.ses  and  commercial  classes.  And  T 
also  believe  that  such  a list  will  make  ])ossible  au  evangelistic 
cam])aign  through  the  mails  that  will  result  in  large  spiritual 
outcomes.” 

4.  Our  colleges  in  Siam  are,  as  a matter  of  fact,  Tiot  colleges 
at  all,  but  high  schools.  They  have  had  to  take  the  name  college, 
however,  to  avoid  mi.sjinderstanding,  as  it  is  the  title  of  other 
schools  in  similar  grades.  In  tijiie  the  lower  college  years  will 
need  to  be  added,  but  for  the  ju-esent  it  is  much  more  important 
to  stiffen  the  (piality  of  the  work  already  done. 

The  Siamese  ikhmI  greatly  the  industrial  element  in  education 
to  break  down  the  sense  of  the  unworthiness  of  manual  work, 
and  the  new  j)lans  of  the  government  seek  to  meet  the  need  by 
alternative  industrial  and  general  courses  following  the  primary 
school.  It  is  to  be  doubted,  however,  whether  this  will  do  more 
than  ju-ovide  two  tyj)es  of  education,  one  of  which  will  be  re- 
garded as  inferioi-  to  the  (»thei-.  Tu  the  IMiilippine  fslands  the 
government  re<iuii-es  the  industi-ial  work  of  all  pupils.  Car- 
|)entering  and  sewing  courses,  attemjded  in  some  of  our  schools 
in  lower  Siam,  have  lavn  found  difficult,  fhe  government  approv- 
ing of  them  but  ])arents  objecting.  In  fhe  Bangkok  (’hristian 
('ollege  the  only  industrial  work  is  a small  press  where  about  a 
.score  of  aided  boys  work,  learning  type-setting  and  printing. 
There  is  also  a course  in  typewriting.  In  the  Prince  Royal’s 
College  in  Chieng  Mai  the  boys  do  all  the  work  on  the  grounds 
and  in  the  buildings.  The  one  distinctive  effort  to  deal  with 
the  imhistrial  j)i-oblem  has  been  at  Lakon.  Several  j)revious  in- 
dustrial exjKMimeiits  there  have  proved  failures.  l\Ir.  Vincent, 

137 


witli  earnestness  and  i)ersistence,  is  now  trying  again  with  a 
tannery  and  a leatlier-working  shop  in  connection  with  the  boys’ 
‘school.  There  are  08  boys  in  the  school,  two-thirds  of  whom 
are  Christians.  Only  eight  of  the  boys,  however,  take  the  in- 
dnstrial  work  and  they  are  working  not  in  the  tannery  but  in 
the  shop,  making  belts  and  shoes.  The  tannery  employs  seven 
men  and  is  now  findiTig  its  financial  problem  easier  as  the  Eu- 
ropean wai-  has  deprived  the  government  of  its  imports  of  leath- 
er and  it  has  turned  to  the  tanneiw  in  Lakon  as  the  only  tannery 
in  Siam.  Throiigli  an  an-angment  with  a Siamese  assistant,  the 
tannei-y  is  a semi-bnsine.ss,  semi-mission  enterprise.  It  enjoys  the 
favor  of  the  officials  and  it  is  teaching  a useful  le.sson,  but  the  bear- 
ing on  the  industrial  jn-oblem  in  the  schools  is  as  yet  but  slight. 
If  the  government  takes  the  whole  output  of  hides  there  will  l>e 
no  material  for  the  boys  to  work  on  in  the  school.  Mr.  Vincent 
would  like  to  add  agriculture  and  carpentering  but  the  work  he 
already  is  re.sponsible  for  is  more  than  one  man  can  do.  The 
station  owns  fifty  or  sixty  acres  of  land  adjoining  the  tannery, 
but  it  is  jungle,  poor  soil  and  difficult  of  irrigation. 

Mr.  Arthur  McClure,  the  tidings  of  whose  accidental  death  in 
San  Francisco  came  to  his  parents  while  we  were  in  Siam,  felt 
deeply  the  need  of  industrial  work,  regarding  which  he  sent  a 
careful  statement  to  the  Board,  written  on  his  way  home  to 
America.  ‘‘Before  her  contact  with  the  outside  world.”  he  said. 
“Siam  had  developed  a civilization  of  her  own.  including  many 
arts  and  crafts;  but  with  the  incoming  of  the  Chinese,  they 
were  gradually  dropped  until,  today,  practically  all  the  trades 
are  Iti  the  hands  of  the  Chinese.  They  have  their  own  guilds 
and  a system  of  ap])rentice.shij>  prevails.  Since,  perhaps,  one- 
third  of  Bangkok,  and  the  larger  centers,  are  Chinese,  and  they 
are  still  coming  into  the  country  by  the  thousands,  from  the 
neighboring  Chinese  ports,  they  will  probably  remain  to  be  the 
skilled  laborers  of  the  country,  and  keep  the  trades  in  their 
hands.  Although  the  Siamese  will  probably  never  be  able  to 
coni])ete  with  the  Chinese  in  industrial  skill,  the  time  is  com- 
iug,  and  is  fast  nearing  at  hand,  Avhen  thei-e  will  not  be  such  a 
gi-eat  demand  for  educated  young  men  to  fill  the  government 
and  commercial  offices  and  as  teachers  in  the  schools,  as  here- 
lofore,  and  some  sort  of  industrial  work  will  have  to  be  pro- 
vided for  the  Siamese.  As  the  supply  of  educate<l  young  men 
excet‘ds  the  demand,  ■salaries  ^-ill  decrease  accordingly,  and 
competition  will  increase.  The  time  is  not  far  away  when  the 
Siamese  youth  will  have  to  show  what  he  can  do  instead  of 
merely  producing  a school  certificate  or  a diploma.  Those  who 
can  not  qualify  for  an  office  job  or  as  a teacher  in  a school,  will 
have  to  find  some  other  way  of  earning  a livelihood.  Rather 
than  educate  all  the  boys  foi-  teachers  aud  office  jobs,  attention 
should  be  ])aid  toward  develo])ing  the  industries.”  The  Chin- 
ese have  not  as  yet  displaced  the  Siamese  tradesmen  to  the  ex- 
tent suggested  in  the  country  at  large,  but  Siamese  industry 

138 


is  certainly  at  a low  ebb,  and  the  indolence  and  nnskillfulness 
of  the  people  leave  them  helpless  before  the  tide  of  Chinese  com- 
petition which  seems  likely  to  continue  to  flow  in,  unless  checked. 
If  it  is  checked  the  industrial  helplessness  of  the  people  will 
keep  tliem  from  joining  in  the  world’s  progress.  It  is  very  diffi- 
cult. however,  to  know  what  to  do,  and  probably  the  be.st  tiling 
is  for  a few  of  the  schools  to  experiment  in  very  simple  ways 
with  carpentering  and  agidculture,  just  as  the  Phili])pine  .scliools 
liave  done,  without  the  elaborate  outlays  which  have  character- 
ized our  previous  attempts  in  Siam. 

5.  The  South  Siam  Mission  has  an  educational  code  which 
follows  the  government  curriculum.  The  North  Siam  schools 
are  pursuing  the  same  policy  of  conformity.  In  this  they  are 
eminently  wise.  The  government  scheme  is  well  conceived  and 
we  ought  to  co-operate  with  it  in  giving  the  kind  of  education 
which  it  believes  the  people  need.  It  has  welcomed  cordially 
our  participation  in  the  educational  field.  The  only  hardship, 
from  which  other  schools,  the  government’s  included,  suffer  as 
much  as  onrseh'es,  is  the  military  conscription  which  has  hith- 
erto taken  boys  above  eighteen  and  made  any  education  above 
the  high  school  grade  imiiossible.  The  age  is  to  be  advanced, 
however,  .so  that  a year  or  two  can  be  added  to  the  school  work. 
Conscription  has  been  only  partially  enforced  in  the  north,  and 
thus  far  Mr.  Harris  has  hacl  no  difficulty  in  retaining  the  boys 
he  wanted  tlu-ongh  conference  with  the  government  authorities. 

Even  if  we  did  not  think  it  wise  to  teach  English  at  all  to 
girls,  or  so  much  English  to  boys,  the  example  of  the  govern- 
ment cnn-icnlnm  and  the  iio])ular  demand  alike  would  re(piire  us 
to  teach  it.  In  the  South  Siam  code  the  work  is  ])ractically 
one-foui-th  English  and  three^fourths  Siamese.  Probably  the 
(lisci|>line  and  the  cultural  value  of  the  English  teaching  justities 
it  even  where  it  is  not  used  afterwards,  but  in  the  case  of  young 
men  and  women  who  teach  afterwards  or  who  go  into  Christian 
work,  effort  should  b(‘  made  to  lead  them  to  keep  uj*  their  Eng- 
lish. (Questions  ask(*d  .some  of  llumi  indicated  that  they  were 
not  doing  so  and  that  although  they  had  ac(iuii-ed  English  in 
oi-dei-  to  oiien  an  ad(‘(iuate  literature  to  them,  they  were  not 
now  i-eading  English  books  at  all. 

The  government  schools  and  the  .sj)r(*ad  of  railroads,  courts, 
and  the  Siamese  administ  rat  ion  in  the  north  will  involve  the 
dis]dac(‘ment  of  Lao  by  Siani(*se  in  the  schools  of  the  North  Siam 
Mission.  Already  Siamese  has  entirely  displaced  Lao  in  the 
Prince  Loyal’s  College.  The  Bible  is  read  in  Siamese  and  it  is 
Siamese  hymns  that  are  sung.  In  the  Chieng  Mai  GirLs’  School 
Lao  has  not  been  entirely  discarded  on  account  of  the  girls  from 
the  villages.  The  Bible  is  read  in  Lao  and  Lao  Sunday-school 
le.s.son  helps  are  used.  The  mission  re(iuires  by  a new  rule  that 
all  new  missionaries  a.ssigned  to  educational  work  shall  devote 
the  first  three  years  of  langtiage  study  to  Siamese  and  the  fourth 
year  to  Lao.  The  two  languages  are  about  sixty  per  cent,  a 

139 


c-oniiiioii  laiisnaf'e.  Documents  that  were  formerly  j)rinte<l  at 
our  press  in  Lao  are  now  printed  in  Siamese.  Our  text  books 
originally  (omi)osed  in  Lao  have  now  all  to  be  changed  to  the 
other  lang^^age.  Tt  will  be  a long  time  l)efore  Lao  ceases  to  be 
the  language  of  the  villages,  but  it  is  clear  that  the  official  and 
commercial  and  social  language  in  nortliei-n  Siam  will  be  not 
Lao  but  Siame.s(\  The  government  is  naturally  anxi«tus  to  have 
the  knowledge  and  n.se  of  Siamese  sprea<l  rapidly.  Its  purjmse 
is  to  assimilate  the  Lao  to  the  Siamese  nationality.  Our  wise 
conr.se  is  to  co-o])erate  and  not  to  ob.struct.  and  while  retaining 
as  much  use  of  Lao  as  is  necessary  for  tlie  village  community, 
increasingly  to  emphasize,  as  we  are  doing  in  our  schools  and  in 
our  literature  and  in  all  our  work,  the  unity  of  Siam  and  the 
.supremacy  of  the  Siamese  tongue.  At  the  close  of  his  auto- 
biogra])hy.  Dr.  McGilvaiw  says: 

^‘The  ultimate  prevalence  of  the  Siamese  language  in  all  the 
provinces  under  Siamese  rule,  has  been  inevitable  from  the  start. 
All  governments  realize  the  importance  of  a uniform  language 
in  unifying  a ]»eople,  and  have  no  interest  whatever  in  perpetu- 
ating a ])rovincial  dialect.  The  Siamese,  in  fact,  look  down  with 
a kind  of  disdain  u]»on  the  Lao  speech,  and  use  it  only  as  a tem- 
porary necessity  during  the  f)eriod  of  transition.  And  the  Siam- 
ese is  really  the  richer  of  the  two  by  reason  of  its  large  borrow- 
ing from  Pali,  the  better  scholarship  behind  it,  and  its  closer 
connection  with  the  outside  world. 

“These  two  forms  of  the  Tai  .speech — with  a common  idiom, 
and  with  the  great  body  of  words  in  both  identical,  or  differing 
only  in  vocal  indectiou — have  been  kept  apart  chiefly  by  the  fact 
that  they  have  different  written  characters.  All  of  the  Lao 
women  and  children,  and  two-thirds  of  the  men.  had  to  be 
*aught  to  read,  whichever  character  were  adopted;  and  they 
could  have  learmnl  the  one  form  (piite  as  easily  as  the  other.  Had 
the  mis.siou  adoj)ted  the  Siamese  character  from  the  start,  it 
would  now  be  master  of  the  educational  situation,  working  on 
a uniform  scheme  with  the  Siamese  Educational  Department. 
Moreover,  the  Siamese  language  in  our  schools  would  have  been 
a distinct  attraction  toward  education  and  toward  Christianity. 
And  thus  there  would  have  been  available  for  the  North  the 
labors  of  two  or  more  generations  of  able  workers  in  the  south- 
ern mission,  from  which  .so  far  the  Lao  church  has  been  mostly 
cut  off.  The  whole  Bible  would  have  been  accessible  from  the 
first;  whereas  now  nearly  half  of  it  remains  still  untranslate<l 
into  the  Lao.  If  the  future  nee<ls  of  the  Siame.se  ])rovinces  alone 
were  to  be  considered,  it  might  even  be  doubted  whether  it  were 
worth  while  to  comj)lete  the  translation.  ‘When  the  monks,  in 
their  studies  ami  teaching,  adopt  the  Siamese,  as  it  is  now  the 
intention  of  the  goverument  to  have  them  do,  Lao  books  will 
soon  be  without  readers  throughout  Siam.  When  for  the  young 
a choice  is  j)ossible  in  the  matter  of  such  a transcendent  instru- 
ment of  thought  and  cultiire  as  language,  all  surely  would  wish 

140 


Iheir  training  to  be  in  that  one  which  has  in  it  the  promise 
of  tlie  fntnre.  These  words  are  wi-itten  in  no  idle  criticism  of 
the  past,  and  in  no  caj>lions  sjiiril  regarding  the  present;  hnt 
with  fnll  sense  of  the  gravity  of  the  decision  wiiicli  confi-onts 
the  mission  in  shaj)ing  its  educational  ])oIicy  for  those  who  lience- 
forth  ai‘e  to  he  Siamese. 

“Meanwhile,  Lao  tv])e  and  hooks  in  the  Lao  dialect  are  need- 
ed, not  merely  for  the  i>resent  generation  of  older  ])eo,t)le  who 
cannot  or  will  not  learn  a new  character,  hnt  also  for  the  iii- 
strnction  and  Christianization  of  that  mnch  larger  mass  of  Lao 
folk  beyond  the  frontier  of  Siam  as  revealed  by  recent  explora- 
tions. IJemoved,  as  the.se  are  entirely  from  the  political  and  cul- 
tural influence  of  Siam,  and  divided  up  under  the  jurisdiction 
of  three  great  nations  of  diverse  and  alien  si)eech,  it  is  incon- 
ceivable that  the  Siamese  should  ever  win  the  ascendency  over 
them.  Nor  has  either  of  the.se  nations  any  immediate  and  press- 
ing incentive  toward  unifying  the  speech  of  its  ])rovincials,  such 
as  has  actuated  Siam  in  this  matter.  If  the  field  of  the  Lao 
mission  is  to  he  extended  to  iiudiide  the.se  ‘regions  beyond’ — - 
as  we  all  ho])e  that  it  soon  may  he — Lao  speech  will  inevitably 
he  the  metlium  of  all  its  work  there.  Then  all  that  so  far  has 
been  accomplisited  in  the  way  of  translation,  writing,  and  ])rint- 
ing  in  the  Lao  tongue,  will  he  .so  mnch  invaluable  capital  to  he 
turned  over  to  the  newer  enter]trise.” 

0.  The  Theological  and  Training  Schools.  The  training 
school  in  Bangkok  was  open  for  only  a short  time  before  it  had 
to  he  closed  on  account  of  the  furlough  of  the  mi.ssionary  in 
charge.  It  had  seven  men,  two  from  Bitsannloke,  four  from 
I'etchahnri,  and  one  fi-om  Bangkok.  It  is  near  the  college  and 
it  remains  to  he  swm  whether  a training  school  in  Bangkok  and 
adjoining  a general  educational  institution,  will  ])rovide  the 
kind  of  lielpers  who  will  go  hack  to  tlu‘  isolate<l  country  ])laces. 
( )n  the  other  hand  such  a training  school  could  he  of  the  greatest 
service  after  the  fashion  of  the  training  sclntol  in  Osaka,  Jaj)an, 
in  the  evangelization  (d'  tin*  city.  With  a dozen  students,  several 
str<H*t  chajtels  could  he  kej)t  ojien  eveiy  night,  and  through  their 
co-oiM*ration  with  voluntary  workei-s  in  tin*  churches  such  evan- 
gelistic visitation  might  h<‘  undei-taken  as  has  not  yet  1)kmi  at- 
tempted. 

The  theological  seminary  in  ('hieng  Mai  is  just  occuj)yiug  the 
beautiful  new  building  provided  by  the  late  Mr.  Severance  who 
gave  Htt(‘en  thousand  <lollars  with  the  understanding  that  the 
proi)ei-ty  sliouhl  he  arranged  to  accoinimxlate  two  hundred  men. 
There  are  thii-ty  in  the  .school  at  ])re.sent,  all  elders  from  the 
('hieng  Mai  jdain,  save  two  from  Lamj)oon  and  one  from  Chieng 
Kai,  so  that  as  yet  it  is  a station  rather  than  a mission  training 
school,  the  inoie  distant  stations  j)roviding  themselves  such 
training  as  theii-  elders  and  workers  aie  getting.  The  jdan  has 
been  to  have  two  strong  nati\(*  teachei's  in  the  school  in  addition 
to  the  missioTiary,  receiving  each  (!()0  ticals  per  annum,  and  to 

141 


use  ill  tills  work  two  of  tlio  men  who  have  already  been  ordained. 
Then  the  school  wan  Is  to  be  able  to  k(Hjp  fifty  men  always  at 
work  for  eij^ht  months  of  the  year  at  an  estimated  expense  of 
]()0  ticals  each,  not  keejiiiif?  the  same  men,  however,  for  all  this 
time,  but  bringin<>’  elders  and  other  workers  from  the  congre- 
gations for  short  periods  of  time  and  then  sending  them  back. 
Then,  in  addition,  there  should  be  a .small  class  of  six  or  eight 
men  going  forward  to  the  ministry  who  would  nee<l  120  or  130 
ticals  each,  making  a total  annual  expense  for  the  school  on  this 
basis  of  7,000  ticals.  The  ])resbylery  has  a.s.sessed  the  churches 
000  ticals  for  the  seniinarv.  This  amount  can  be  increased,  how- 
ever, and  it  would  .seem  better  not  to  start  with  the  assumption 
that  all  .students  were  to  be  subsidized  by  the  school,  but  to  ex- 
pect from  each  student  or  the  congregation  that  sends  him,  his 
suiiport,  in  whole  or  in  jiart,  during  his  stay  in  the  school. 

7.  Could  not  more  be  done  in  many  of  our  schools  in  Siam 
to  train  the  native  teachers  in  teaching?  ^lany  of  them  have 
had  little  actual  normal  work  and  oftentimes  they  are  left  to  stru«r- 
gle  along  without  the  inspiration  and  improvement  that  would 
come  from  .systematic  help  from  missionary  teachers.  The  teach- 
ers’ institute  at  Chieng  Mai  has  been  most  helpful,  but  it  could 
be  suj»j)lenieuled  greatly  by  work  in  the  stations. 

8.  Some  of  the  South  Siam  stations  are  feeling  strongly  the 
need  of  the  development  of  church  schools  for  which  the  local 
congregations  will  be  re.sponsible.  There  Ls  danger  that  .some 
of  the  stations  in  their  wise  zeal  for  such  schools  may  a.ssume, 
on  the  resj)on.sibility  of  the  station,  a care  of  these  schools 
which  will  frustrate  one  object  of  their  establishment.  Certainly 
.such  .schools  should  be  promoted  and  it  will  be  well  to  have 
them  rest  from  the  beginning  on  the  actual  resijonsibility  of 
the  church.  One  of  the  missionaries  wrote  us  after  we  had  left 
his  station,  as  follows:  “The  churches  in  South  Siam  are  most 
of  them  more  than  10  years  old.  Schools  are  existing  at  every 
one  of  our  stations.  But  for  years  i»ast  the  increase  to  church 
membershii)  came  from  without,  not  from  within,  from  the 
schools,  where  the  children  of  the  church  are  supposed  to  re- 
ceive their  education.  By  schools  I mean  educational  establish- 
ments where  a boy  or  a girl  receives  the  education  to  which 
every  child  is  entitled  and  which  the  church  is  bound  to  give: 
a common  school  education.  Every  child  of  the  church,  rich  or 
poor,  has  a right  to  such  an  education  and  the  church  has  the 
duty  to  give  it.  lu  the  past  the  mission  has  had  full  control 
of  our  .schools  ami  the  aim  seems  to  have  l>een  to  secure  a large 
number  of  pui)ils  rather  than  pay  any  sjtecial  attention  to  the 
children  of  the  church.  The  churches  consequently  have  noth- 
ing to  do  with  our  schools  and  are  not  interested  in  them.  And 
hence  the  usefulness  of  the  schools  to  train  up  the  children  of 
the  church  has  been  nil.... It  is  evident,  therefoie,  that  church 
and  school  must  be  brought  together;  only  then  the  church 
will  take  an  interest  in  the  education  of  their  own  children.  The 

142 


Kchool  must  be  a church  school,  a school  for  the  chihlreu  of  the 
church,  siijjpoi'ted  hy  tlie  chiircli  aud  ooverued  hr  the  session. 
The  .secret  <d‘  success  with  a school  lies  not  in  the  fact  tliat  a 
|)U])il  reads  in  the  Ixtok  of  (feuesis  tifteeii  uiiuntes  per  day  aud 
attends  daily  prayers,  hut  it  lies  in  the  fact  that  the  childi-eu 
all,  or  almost  all,  come  fj-om  ('hristiau  families;  only  then  a ('hri.s- 
tiau  atmosphere  will  permeate  the  school. 

‘‘The  growth,  pro.sperity  aud  permaueucy  of  a church  rests  on 
the  ('hristiau  children  much  more  than  on  double  the  number 
of  converts  who.se  ages  ma}'  range  from  twenty  to  seventy  years. 
And  of  course  the  minister  in  charge  of  a church  must  nece.s- 
sarily  take  a great  interest  in  the  education  of  the  church’s 
children  and  .see  that  they  attend  school  and  receive  also  the 
pro])er  religious  education.  That’s  his  business.  ...  The  gradual 
bringing  together  of  school  and  church  will  benefit  both;  the 
churches  will  lo.se  their  infantile  character  aud  the  school  will 
become  characteristically  Christian.  The  expenses  of  the  Board 
for  school  work  will  become  less,  for  the  salaries  of  foreign  teach- 
ers will  not  be  needed,  as  the  school  adapts  itself  to  the  needs 
of  the  church.” 

\'II.  The  Mission  Presses  and  (’hristiau  Literature.  Each 
mission  has  a press,  the  southern  mission  a j>re.ss  j)rinting  in 
Siame.se  ami  English,  in  Bangkok,  and  the  northern  mission  a 
j)ress  printing  in  Lao,  Siame.se  and  English  in  Chieng  Mai.  The 
Bangkok  ])ress  i)ays  all  its  running  exj)en.ses  and  half  of  Mr. 
Sj)ilnian’s  .salary.  It  carries  on  its  stock  account  12,000  ticals 
worth  (»f  tracts,  etc.,  for  evangelistic  work.  There  are  half  a 
dozen  or  more  larger  or  better  presses  in  Bangkok  than  ours, 
but  our  press  has  all  it  can  do  without  soliciting  job  work.  The 
('hieng  Mai  jiress  likewise  is  .self-sustaining  ami  earns  enough 
to  cover  Mr.  (Jollins'  salary.  For  many  years  it  has  l)een  the 
only  ])ress  in  Chieng  Mai,  although  others  are  entering  the  field, 
and  it  has  done  the  government  j)rinting  in  Lao  and  now  does 
much  of  it  in  Siame.se.  Each  press  has  been  well  managed  and 
has  helped  to  pay  for  its  own  (spiij)ment.  The  following  state- 
ments show  what  Christian  literature  is  ])rovided  by  eacli  press. 

Chie.nu;  M.ai  1*kess 

The  following  works  have  been  j*riuted  in  Lao  and  almost  all 
are  in  stock  at  this  time: 

(Jenesis,  Exodus,  Ruth,  I and  II  Samuel,  Fsalms,  Isaiah, 
Amos  and  donah  of  the  Old  Testament.  Dent.,  doshua,  Ezra, 
Esther,  Proverbs  and  Malachi  translated  and  ready  for  the  press. 

All  j)ortions  of  the  New  Testament  have  been  printed.  Sev- 
eral books  have  bemi  printed  a number  of  time.s. 

Editions  langing  from  1(1,(100  to  bO.OOO  of  selected  portions 
of  the  tiist  eleven  chapters  of  Cenesis,  |{uth.  donah.  Matthew, 
Mark,  Luke,  Ephesians,  Colossians,  1st  The.ss.,  dames  and  dude 
have  been  is.sue<l  for  colporteur  and  evangelistic  work. 

14d 


Two  editions  of  onr  Laos  Hyninal,  one  with  notes  and  the 
otliei’  witliont,  dtitt  liyinns.  An  edition  of  some  sixty  seleete<l 
Iiyinns  foi-  om-  eAoin};elist ic  work. 

Tliree  Jdves  of  (’hrist,  one  prej)ai-ed  l)y  J)r.  Hradley  in  the 
Siamese;  one  an  illustrated  Life  of  Christ,  a l>eantifnl  book; 
and  one  for  >ise  in  onr  schools.  Introdnction  to  the  Books  of 
the  New  Testament  for  nse  in  our  schools,  inclndinj?  our  theo- 
lo}?ical  school.  Old  Testament  History,  first  vol.  prepared  in 
Siamese  by  Dr.  Bradley. 

The  Shortei-  Catechism,  Child’s  Catechism  and  the  Jnter- 
me<liate. 

Four  tracts  in  the  vernacular  for  our  evangelistic  work. 

The  vernacular  paper  i)ublished  monthly.  The  first  sixteen 
pages  o'f  every  number  are  devoted  to  the  news  of  the  day,  and 
this  is  followed  by  at  least  sixteen  more  pages  devote<l  to  the 
study  of  the  Sabbath-school  lessons. 

English  Laos  Dictionary,  first  lessons  in  Laos.  Three  Laos 
Primers  or  Helps  in  the  study  of  the  language.  Two  native  or 
sacred  books  for  nse  of  new  missionaries. 

The  Laos  News,  last  edition,  or  July  number,  930  copies. 

School  books.  Ancient  Hi.story,  Second  and  Fourth  Iteader.s, 
Geography. 

Chundrela,  an  Indian  Princess  seeking  the  Way  of  Life,  illus- 
trated. 

Printed  in  Siamese:  Selected  Sermons,  by  Moody;  Tolstoy’s 
Stories,  Siamese  primer,  used  in  schools. 

Bangkok  Press 

Siamese  Hymnal,  405  nos.,  with  and  without  notes. 

Outline  Gospel  Harmony,  by  E.  P.  Dunlap,  2.3  pp. 

Old  Testament  History,  bj'  Dr.  Bradley.  Vol.  1,  Part  1. 

Old  Testament  History,  by  Dr.  Bradley.  Vol.  1,  Part  2. 

Old  Testament  History,  by  Dr.  Bradley.  Vol.  2,  Part  1. 

Old  Testament  History,  by  Dr.  Bradley.  Vol.  2,  Part  2. 

Above  histories  are  almost  all  out  of  print. 

Pilgrim’s  Progress,  Vol.  I.  Christian.  266  pp. 

Pilgrim’s  Progress.  Vol.  II.  Christiana.  243  pp. 

Life  of  Christ,  by  Dr.  Bradley.  230  pp. 

Old  Testament  Stories,  by  Miss  L.  .J.  Cooper.  151  pp.  Last 
year  enlarged  to  over  350  pp. 

Evils  of  Intoxicants,  by  E.  P.  Dunlap.  12  pp. 

Peep  of  Day.  117  pp. 

Handbook  for  Christian  workers,  by  Dr.  -1.  A.  Eakin.  1.35  pp. 

Titus,  Comrade  of  the  Cross.  ISO  pp. 

Evidences  of  Christianity,  by  S.  G.  McFarland.  96  pp. 

Sermons  by  Dr.  S.  G.  McFarland.  134  pp. 

Sermon  by  Dr.  G.  B.  McFarland.  11  pp. 

Book  on  Temperance,  by  Dr.  Geo.  B.  McFarland.  48  pp. 

Westminster  Catechism,  by  Dr.  S.  G.  McFarland.  43  pp. 

Child’s  Catechism,  by  S.  R.  House.  22  pp. 

144 


Church  Forms,  Orders  of  Service,  Forms  for  Baptism,  Mar- 
riage and  Funerals,  by  Presbytery,  -tl  pp. 

Gospel  Proverbs  in  Verse,  by  E.  P.  Dunlap,  db  pp. 

Lawn  Chit  ( Tem])erauce),  by  Kni  Phun.  :>4  pp. 

Evils  of  Gambling,  by  E.  P.  Dunlai).  :>2  pp. 

Formosa  and  Madagascar,  by  Pi.  1*.  Dunlap.  43  pp. 

Doubts  Explained,  by  Samean  Ma.  37  pp. 

Prayer,  by  Kni  Heng.  32  pp. 

The  Golden  Balance,  by  J.  T.  Jones.  30  pp. 

Balance  of  Religion,  Samean  Ma.  32  pp. 

Faith  and  Practice.  40  pp. 

Hints  to  the  Wise,  by  J.  T.  Jones.  36  pp. 

Messianic  Prophecies.  34  pp. 

Every-Day  Mercies,  by  J.  ’S'anDyke.  34  pp. 

Hill-Top  Teaching.  12  pp. 

The  Trinity,  by  W.  G.  McClure.  24  pp. 

The  Creator,  by  Dr.  Bradley.  24  pp. 

The  Prodigal  Son,  by  Kru  Yuan.  IS  pj). 

The  Decalogue,  by  Miss  Cort.  10  pii. 

I'recious  News,  by  E.  1*.  Dunlap.  14  pi>. 

Daily  Food,  bj"  Kru  Soon  Ho.  lo2  pp. 

Idolatry,  by  Kru  Klai.  13  pp. 

Invitations  of  American  Missionaries,  by  R.  W.  Post.  Single 
sheets. 

Way  to  Heaven,  by  R.  W.  Post.  Single  sheets. 

R.  A.  Tori'ey  on  Prayer,  by  Mrs.  Bulkley. 

Confession  of  Faith,  by  S.  G.  Mch'arland. 

Ethics,  by  Miss  Galt.  234  j)p. 

Mother  Teaching  Her  Sou,  by  E.  P.  Dunlap.  16  p]>. 

Judson  Memorial  Tract. 

Testimonies  of  Famous  Men  to  Religion  of  Christ,  by  R.  W. 
Post. 

The  Story  of  Salvation,  by  J.  A.  Eakin. 

The  Way  of  Salvation  tlirough  Jesus  Christ,  by  Dr.  E.  P. 
Dunlaj).  14  pj). 

Repentance,  by  Nai'Suk.  IS  i)j». 

To  Prepare  Candidates  for  Joining  the  Cliurch,  by  E.  P.  Dun- 
laj).  15  PJ). 

The  two  j)resses  have  done  very  well  in  attemj)ting  to  meet 
the  need  of  literature  in  the  churches.  Both  the  Siamese  and 
the  Eao  churches  are  much  better  suj)plied  than  the  churches 
in  some  other  field.s.  But  there  is  need  of  a great  deal  more. 
The  Siamese  are  not,  however,  a reading  pcHiple.  They  have 
]>ractically  no  literature  excej)t  a hundi-ed  rather  trivial  plaj^s, 
the  account  of  the  late  King’s  trij)  to  Europe  and  a little  ekse. 
There  are  almost  no  books  of  history'  or  general  iiiformatiou. 
Thanks  to  the  wat  schools,  the  number  of  men  who  can  read  is 
considerable.  The  government  census  indicates  that  while  only 
142,143  out  of  3,647,412  women  are  literate,  the  literate  men  are 
S27,514  out  of  3,660,450.  In  other  words  the  i)ercentage  of  literacy 

145 


amono-  women  is  4 per  cent,  and  of  men  22  per  cent.  In  the 
Montlion  Raya]»,  the  territoi-v  of  tlie  North  Siam  Mission,  the 
litei-ate  males  are  ^iven  as  10.100,  and  the  literate  females  as 
1,080,  out  of  a total  population  of  1.210,817.  All  the  illiteracy 
figures  are  misleading  because  of  the  fact  that  there  is  no  age 
census  in  Siam  ami  there  is  no  way  of  detennining  the  adult 
or  school  age  i)opulation.  The  illitei-ate  include  all  the  children. 
The  j)rinted  language  is  of  course  the  same  everywhere  among 
the  Siamese,  and  likewise  among  the  Lao,  hut  there  are  many 
local  dialects.  Between  the  i)eninsula  and  Bangkok,  between 
Nan  and  Brae,  between  ('hieng  Mai  and  Boiet,  there  are  diversi- 
ties of  speech  and  there  are  many  others.  1 tiver.sities  of  oral 
dialect  diminish  the  number  of  readers  even  where  the  written 
language  is  the  same. 

The  amount  of  work  in  Siamese  which  the  Thieng  Mai  press 
is  doing  increases  every  year  and  its  work  in  Lao  proportionately 
diminishes.  Mr.  Wood,  the  British  (’onsul  in  (’hieng  Mai,  who 
has  lived  many  years  in  Siam,  and  whose  wife  is  a Lao  lady, 
told  us  that  in  twelve  years  he  believed  Lao  as  a written  lan- 
guage would  be  extinct,  exce])t  among  a few  of  the  older  people. 
As  a spoken  language  it  woubl  last  indefinitely,  but  the  days 
when  a ]»rinted  Lao  literature  would  be  needed  in  Siam  were, 
he  believed,  numbered.  This  may  be  too  sti'ong  an  expre.ssion, 
but  the  steady  sj)read  of  Siamese  and  the  increasing  similarity 
of  the  work  which  the  two  presses  will  be  doing,  raises  the  ques- 
tion of  their  union.  (4ne  of  the  missionaries  gave  us  the  follow- 
ing brief  on  the  subject  of  such  a union : 

“In  favor  of  union  in  Bangkok. 

“Freight  cost — (ditference  slight  when  railroad  completed). 

“Business  in  Bangkok  likely  to  be  lost  if  transferred  to  (Dhieng 
Mai.  Probably  not  very  great. 

“Opposed  to  union  in  Bangkok. 

“Greater  labor  cost  (it  costs  about  one-third  more  to  set  u]> 
and  i)riiit  a page. 

“Tmpractiicable  to  print  Lao  in  Bangkok.  i Pn)l)ably  one 
might  say,  impo.ssible.  At  any  rate  it  would  cost  at  least 
double  to  print  Lao  in  Bangkok  and  a good  job  would  be  much 
harder  to  get.  Only  Lao  men  could  set  it  readily  and  they  d(* 
not  willingly  stay  in  Bangkok.  Present  smaller  output  of  the 
Bangkok  j)ress.  I^ast  yea.r's  report  shownl  about  (»,fi00,00()  j)ages 
in  Bangkok,  1 l.tJOO.OOO  in  (’hieng  Mai.) 

“In  favor  of  union  in  Chieng  Mai. 

“'t^nialler  cost  of  labor.  (Tyjie-setting  and  press  work  three  as 
against  four  in  Bangkok.) 

“Better  building.  l*re.seut  larger  output  tas  above). 

“Less  operating  expense. 

“Output  of  Siamese  last  year  about  one-half  as  large  as  that 
in  Bangkok  at  less  cost.  No  difficulty  in  printing  in  Chieng 
Mai,  all  Siamese  work  called  for. 

146 


‘‘IJoolu  for  expansion.  In  Bangkok  would  it  be  possible  to 
bud  room  for  present  and  prospective  work  of  tlie  combimgl 
presses?,  ^ 

‘‘As  Against  union  in  Either  Place. 

“Both  are  self-supporting  and  buildings  and  equipment  inain- 
h'  i)urchased  from  recei])ts.  One  plant  could  do  all  the  work, 
but  might  not  hold  the  ‘job  work’  now  done  by  both,  and  might 
fail  of  self-support.” 

Tliere  is  no  need  of  immediate  action  in  the  matter.  But  the 
(pieslion  of  a union  of  tiie  ])resses  will  certainly  present  it.self 
again. 

The  i 'll  loll  of  the  Tiro  Mi.ssioii.s.  The  .same  pressure 
of  ev'ents  which  raises  the  qne.stion  of  the  union  of  tlie  presses, 
raises  also  the  larger  (piestion  of  the  union  of  the  two  missions. 

The  arguments  sugge.sted  in  favor  of  the  union  were:  (1)  Im- 
proved facilities  of  communication  now  bring  all  the  stations 
of  the  two  missions  nearer  together  than  all  the  stations  of 
either  mission  have  j)revionsly  been.  On  one  trij>  years  ago  the 
missionaries  were  107  days  in  g»nng  from  Bangkok  to  Chieng 
Mai.  We  made  the  trip  between  the  two  cities  in  four  and  a 
half  days’  traveling  time,  stoj)i)ing  at  night.  The  railroad  will 
be  completed  shortly  all  the  way  through  and  it  will  then  be 
possible  to  go  from  Bangkok  to  (’hieng  Mai  in  21  hours.  Chieng 
Mai,  Lakon,  Bangkok,  Petchabnri,  Xakoji  and  Taj)  Teang  will 
all  be  connected  by  rail  within  ]>ei-ha])s  a year.  And  Prae  is 
only  a short  distance  from  the  railroad  with  automobile  con- 
nections. Xan  and  Chieng  Kai  will  still  be  dilticnlt  of  access, 
but  they  will  be  j»ractically  as  neai-  to  Bangkok  as  to  Chieng 
Mai  in  time.  Mission  meetings  of  the  larger  mission,  accord- 
ingly, will  be  easiei-  than  meetings  of  the  sej>arate  missions 
have  luHm.  (2|  The  country  is  to  be  more  and  more  unitied  un- 
iler  one  central  administration  with  one  common  language, 
with  one  homog<‘neons  .set  of  ])olitical  and  social  problems.  Such 
a situation  should  be  dealth  with  by  a \initied  mission.  (3)  The 
larger  mission,  as  (*xperienc(*  has  shown,  makes  it  easier  to  deal 
with  both  ]>ersonal  pr(»blems  ami  mission  ])olicy  and  to  carry 
out  a common  jdan.  The  laig(*r  mission  also  luovides  more 
fellowshij)  and  ac(|nainlance  and  tin*  stiengih  of  unity.  (-1)  It 
will  make  jiossibh*  better  provision  for  all  the  work  by  giving  a 
larger  nnnd)er  of  nnm  and  women,  t(»  be  titt(‘d  to  the  ditferent 
tasks  of  the  mi.ssion.  S])ecially  will  it  make  it  easier  to  deal 
with  the  jtroblein  of  the  occn])ation  of  the  whole  field  and  the 
establishment  of  new  stations  in  the  nnreaclu*d  sections  and  ])er- 
haj)s  the  readjustment  of  the  ))ie.sent  disti-ibntion  of  force  so  as 
to  .secure  a more  (*<pial  occn])ation.  loi  In  other  fields  of  the 
church  where  fhere  have  been  two  missions  (q)erating  under 
similar  conditions  and  facing  homogeneons  j)roblems  and  able 
to  nnit(“,  they  fiave  done  so.  as  in  the  ca.se  of  the  East  and  West 
•lapan,  and  the  East  and  West  Shantung  Missions. 

The  arguments  adverse  to  the  union  were:  fl  i The  large  size 

147 


of  lli(‘  iiiiilod  mission  would  mako  it  diniciill  1o  onlorlain  and  px- 
|)(*iisiv(‘  to  1 l•a^s])OI•^ . II  was  admitlod  llial  lli(*sp  samp  ditTicnllios 
would  ai)|)ly  lo  llip  union  of  tlip  Slianinnji  missions  and  would 
hold  in  llip  casp  of  many  of  tlip  existinj;  sin<;ip  missions.  (2)  There 
would  he  I he  dan<»pr  tliat  spclional  fp(*linj*'  would  he  carried  over 
into  the  new  mission  and  that  one-half  or  other  of  the  field  would 
ti-y  to  secure  a disj)ro])ortionate  develo])ment.  f.‘>)  That  the  two 
miss'ionsi  are  (luite  (listinct  in  their  climatic  crmditions.  the 
customs  and  the  character  of  the  j)(*o[)le,  their  educational  policy, 
Iheii-  mission  rules  and  methods  of  j)rocedure,  in  their  way  of 
dealin**’  with  liuddhism  and  their  attitude  to  the  priests.  (4) 
If  the  work  is  united  it  will  involve  comj)lications  of  race  and 
ec(desiastical  organization.  The  Siamese  will  dominate  and  the 
Lao  will  not  have  a chance,  (ti)  The  financial  j)olicies  of  the 
two  missions  are  difierent. 

Something  may  he  said  against  the  bigness  of  a mission.  It 
may  overshadow  too  much  the  individual  missionary  and  also 
the  native  church,  hut  1 think  in  Siam  at  ])i-esent  the  argument 
is  with  the  affirmation  that  the  two  mi.s.sions  should  he  united, 
and  indeed  there  was  geneial  agreement  that  it  would  be  inevit- 
able, hut  that  the  time  had  not  come  for  it.  Doubtless  it  has 
not  come  yet,  hut  it  seems  probable  that  in  a veiw  few  years  it 
will  come,  and  as  soon  as  it  does  it  will  surely  result  in  great 
good  to  each  (rf  the  missions.  Many  of  the  arguments  against 
the  union  based  on  the  diversities  of  the  two  missions  only  indi- 
cate that  each  mission  has  something  that  it  can  contribute  to 
the  other,  ami  would  be  able  to  contxabute  in  such  a union. 

IX.  It  w'ould  certainly  be  much  easier  for  the  united  mis- 
sion to  deal  with  the  prohJein  of  e.rtcii-‘<ion.  It  is  difficult  to 
decide  now'  with  regard  to  some  of  the  unoccupied  territory, 
wdiether  it  should  be  looked  :ifter  by  the  northern  mission  or  by 
the  southern.  This*appears  clearly  from  an  excellent  .statement 
which  Ml'.  Freeman  has  prejiared  regarding  the  unoccupied  fields: 

“iSiain  is  about  equal  in  area  to  the  four  states  of  Illinois, 
Iowa,  AVisconsin  and  Aliniiesota  combined,  or  a little  larger  thau 
France.  Its  i)0])ulation  is  about  the  same  as  those  four  states 
minus  Chicago  (S,140,0T!),  per  census,  1911').  It  consists  of 
eighteen  ‘moiithons’  or  ])roviuces  of  very  unequal  area  aud  popu- 
lation (largest,  1,21(>,S17;  smallest,  77,fi()2i.  This  area  falls 
readily  into  three  sections  which  we  shall  call  north,  south  and 
east  Siam.  A line  drawn  north  and  south  fifty  miles 
east  of  Bangkok  rotighly  marks  the  boundan-  of  the  four 
eastern  ])rovinces  wdiich  form  east  Siam.  A line  drawn 
west  and  a little  south  from  the  point  wdiere  this  line  touches 
the  Mekong  or  Cambodia  Biver  (near  its  great  bend  to  the  east) 
marks  the  present  boundary  of  the  North  Siam  (Laos)  Alissiou 
and  the  South  Siam  Alission.  The  three  sections  are  approxi- 
mately ecpial  in  area,  although  South  Siam  is  the  largest  aud 
contains  fully  one-half  the  population  of  the  kingdom. 

148 


“^Soutli,  or  as  we  might  perliai)s  better  say,  Central  Siam,  is 
divided  into  thirteen  provinces  witli  a total  population  as  given 
in  the  census  of  some  4,800.815.  Five  of  these  provinces,  with  a 
population  of  2.810,708,  have  each  a station  of  the  South  Siam 
Mission.  Occasional  tours  reach  otlier  provinces,  hut  the  or- 
ganized work  of  file  mission  is  confined  to  these  five  provinces. 
One  other  ])rovince,  witli  a jiopulation  of  281,070,  is  occu])ied  by 
tlie  Phra]>aton  .station  of  the  Englisli  Cliurch  of  Christ.  The 
remaining  seven  ])i'ovinces  are  as  yet  unoccupied  by  any  organ- 
ized Protestant  missionary  work.  Several  of  them  are,  however, 
so  situated  that  tliey  can  he  readied  from  existing  mission  sta- 
tions, and  a couple  of  added  stations  may,  as  the  work  develops, 
make  the  occupation  of  these  seven  unoccupied  provinces  with 
1.807,008  peojile  effective.  Some  of  them,  too,  are  too  small  to 
justify  a sejiarate  station. 

“Tt  must  not  be  forgotten  that  the  North  Siam  (Laos)  Mis- 
sion has  a considerable  work  and  a vast  unoccupied  field  north 
and  east  of  the  borders  of  Siam,  hut  five  of  its  six  stations  and 
the  great  hulk  of  its  churcli  memlxu-ship,  ai-e  still  in  Siam.  These 
five  stations,  and  the  substation  Lampoon,  occujiy  the  .six 
muangs  f sub-provinces i , which  together  form  the  single  jirovince 
of  Rayaji.  the  largest  in  aiea  and  in  iiojmlation  in  the  Kingdom 
of  Siam.  It  repoi-fs.  Sept.  80,  1014.  communicant  members. 
(>,08)4.  received  on  confession  the  jiast  year,  1,001,  jinpils  in 
school.  1,740.  If  has  organiz(*d  woi-k  in  nearly  every  jirefecture 
(d‘  the  province,  reiiorting  !»0  jdaces  id'  regular  wor.shij). 

“Fast  Siam,  with  four  provinces  and  a rejiorted  population  of 
2,582,885,  has  an  aira  and  pojnilation  about  (Hpial  to  Minnesota, 
hnt  has  not  a single  resident  Protestant  missionary.  Access  to 
it  is  easiest  from  Bangkok,  hut  its  jieople  and  speech  ally  it 
ratliei-  with  the  north  since*  tin*  Imlk  of  the  po])nlation  is  Laos. 
Ilowevei',  until  tin*  census  was  jnihli.shed  in  1012.  we  in  the  north 
had  snpjiosed  all  east  Siam  was  rather  spars<dy  populated,  as  is 
tin*  .section  nearest  to  ns  visited  hy  Mr.  Shields  some  years  since. 
We  had  thei-efore  in  a measure  acepiiesced  in  the  o])inion  of  the 
south  mi.s.sion  that  since*  ;ie-e-e*ss  was  via  Bangke)k,  it  perhaj)s  he- 
le)iig(*el  rather  te»  their  splu*re  than  eeurs.  The  South  Siam  ^lis- 
sie)ii  hael  eeften  visiteel  Ke»rat.  the  e-ajiital  eef  the  nearest  anel 
least  pe»pnh)us  e»f  the  feeeii-  (*astern  jtreevine-es,  anel  urged  the  im- 
pe)rtane-e  e>f  eejeening  a statieen  there*,  hut  they  hael  never  visite*el 
the  meere  j>e)pnle)us  (as  the  e-e*nsns  sinews i,  hut  meere  distant  east- 
ern .seedienis,  mu-  fully  re*:ilizeel  their  imieeertance.  Besides,  they 
hael  eethei-  nne>e-cnpi(*el  areas  ne*are*r  at  hanel,  anel  e*asier  of  ae-cess, 
where*  the  sj»e*e*e-h  was  meere*  e leesely  like  that  eef  Bangkok.  Now, 
heewever,  beetle  missieens  leette*r  realize  the  sitnatieen,  that  in  east 
Siam  one-thirel  eef  the  !iri*;i  einel  peejeulatieen  eef  Siam  is  winelly 
untouche*d  ley  missieenary  etfeert.  The  leeejeulation  is,  you  will 
remeieileer.  eevei-  twee  ;enel  een(*-h;ilf  millions.  Freem  two  sources, 
this  year,  uigent  re*epiests  h.ive  eeeieee.tee  beetle  neissieens  to  under- 
teeke  weei-k  there.  lee  le.speeeese  the  .seeuth  mission  again  eerges 

149 


(lie  iiiiiioHance  of  opening  work  in  Korat,  and  a member  of  the 
Nortli  (Laos)  Mission  lias  volunteered  to  open  a station  at  Roiet, 
the  newly  established  government  and  militarj’  station  in  east 
Siam,  the  next  objective  point  of  the  railway,  where  the  popu- 
lation seems  to  be  wholly  Laos;  provided  both  missions  unite  in 
(lie  effort  to  secure  the  men  and  means  necessaiw  to  open. 

“Roth  missions  are  considering  this  proposition  to  open  work 
at  the  heai-t  of  this  Siamese  Minnesota,  the  largest  area  unoccu- 
))ied  by.  T’rotestant  missions  in  Siam,  one  of  the  largest  in  the 
Avorld,  rather  a jiart  of  the  largest  populous  area  thus  unoccu- 
])ied,  for  the  same  conditions  persist  northward  clear  across 
French  rndo-China  into  the  heart  of  China  itself,  among  a peo- 
ple everywhere  kindred  to  the  ‘Tai’  of  Siam. 

“North  Siam  itself  has  no  unoccupied  areas;  the  unoccupie<l 
aieas  of  south  Siam  are  scattered  and  measurably  within  the 
reach  of  existing  station.s.  The  problem  within  the  bounds  of 
Siam  is  east  Siam,  where  as  I have  already  said,  one-third  of 
(he  area  and  population  of  Siam  are  as  yet  wholly  beyond  the 
reach  of  the  gospel.  Pray  for  this  Siamese  ‘Minnesota’.  When 
will  the  Presbyterian  Church  enter  in  and  posses  it  for  Christ?” 
It  would  seem  clear  that  something  must  be  done  to  develop 
the  great  section  of  Siam  lying  between  the  ^lenam  and  Mekong 
Rivers.  It  would  probably  be  wise  for  the  two  missions  to  do 
a great  deal  more  itinerating,  however,  from  such  centers  as 
Korat  and  Roiet  before  settling  down  in  any  one  place  with  any 
considerable  j)roperty  inve.stment. 

The  distribution  of  ])o]mlation  in  south  Siam  among  the  dif- 
ferent stations  is  veiw  unequal  and  Mr.  Snyder  has  worked  out 
a re-distribution.  Mr.  Snyder’s  figures,  based  on  a different 
census  from  the  one  which  I have  been  quoting,  and  assuming 
the  establishment  of  a new  station  at  Korat,  are  as  follows: 

Bangkok  Station  over  one  and  one-third  million. 


Mont  lion  Bangkok  867,4.51 

“ Ayuthia  484,2.36 


1,351,687 

Pelchaburi  Station  nearly  one  million. 


.Mon (lion  Rajuburi  344,402 

“ Nakon  Chaisi  246,734 

“ Petchaburi 282,053 

“ Chantaboon  94,977 


968,176 

Pitsauuloke  Station  nearly  half  a million. 

Mouthou  Pitsauuloke 196,739 

“ Nakon  Sawan  228,497 

“ .Petchaboon  74,281 


150 


499,517 


Nakoii  Sritaniarat  Station,  over  one  million. 


Monthou  Nakon  Sritamarat 645,545 

“ Chumpon  129,901 

“ Patani 269,817 


1,045,263 

Taj)  Teaiifi'  Station,  le.ss  than  one-tiftli  of  a million. 

Monthon  IMiket 178,599 

Korat  Station  ove)*  one  and  three-cjnartei's  millions. 

Monthon  Korat  402,068 

“ Isarn  915,750 

“ T^dorn  576,947 

1,894,765 

Total  ])oi)nlation  of  South  Siam  Mission  field  about  five 
and  a half  million. 

In  addition  to  this  nnreaclied  region  in  eastern  Siam  there  is 
a larf>e  area  nntonched  and  largely  nnexj)lored,  with  poor  means 
of  comninnication,  and  a j)oj)nlation  which  can  only  he  guessed, 
lying  between  Pahang  on  the  north  and  Petchahnri  on  the  south, 
the  Menam  Piver  on  the  (*ast  and  the  western  boundary  of  Siam. 

For  many  years  the  i»lans  of  the  North  Siam  Mission  have 
reached  out  to  the  po])nl:it ions  with  linguistic  and  racial  affilia- 
tions to  the  Lao,  living  in  Fnmch  territory  to  the  east,  and  in 
British  and  ('hinese  ten-itoi-y  to  the  north.  The  French  field  has 
been  closed  by  the  attitinh*  of  the  French  officials  who  forbid  onr 
missionaries  even  itinerating  beyond  the  Siamese  border.  There 
is  a small  Swiss-French  Protestant  mission  at  Mnang  Song  in 
hb-ench  territory  and  it  is  greatly  to  be  hoped  that  this  mission 
sho\ild  ex])and  and  occnj»y  the  French  Lao  field  which  is  closed  to 
ns.  Northward  oni-  mission  has  already  ex]>anded  into  the  British 
Burma  pi-ovince  of  Keng  Tung  wher<‘,  by  ai-rangement  with  the 
Baj)tists.  we  confine  onrs(dves  to  the  eastern  bordei'  of  the  pro- 
vince as  a highway  north  to  the  Sij)  Sawng  Panna.  which  is  the 
dijt  of  the  riune.se  j)rovince  of  Vnnan  sonthwai-d  to  the  British 
and  French  borders.  Di-.  Dodd’s  fascinating  reports  to  the 
Boai-d  have  desci-ibed  tin*  needs  and  o])])ortnnities  in  these  great 
nntonched  sections  of  the  Tai  jteople.  The  mission  has  already 
b(H‘n  authorized  to  open  a station  at  Keng  Ilnng  or  Itnng,  north 
of  Keng  Tnng,  as  .soon  as  the  men  and  resources  are  available. 
When  will  the  riinrch  mak(‘  it  possible  for  the  two  Siam  mis- 
sions to  comjtass  the  whole  of  their  task?  When  will  the  clnirch 
in  Siam,  esj)ecially  in  the  north,  come  to  that  consciousness  of 
duty  which  will  enable  it  to  take  its  part  in  the  evangelization 
of  Siam  itself  and  in  the  extension  into  the  regions  beyond? 

With  the  exception  of  the  small  mission  of  the  English  Church 
of  Christ,  a body  with  Plymouth  Brethren  affiliations  at  Phra- 
patom  and  the  work  of  the  Baj»tists  among  the  Chinese  in  Bang- 

151 


kok,  and  a .small  work  of  the  Society  for  the  Propagation  of  the 
trospel  in  Bangkok,  chiefly  among  Eurasians*,  the  whole  of  Siam 
has  been  left  to  us.  One  wonders  at  times  whether  this  is  wise 
or  right,  whether  the  j)lans  of  mission  comity  which  leave  whole 
countries  lo  single  denominations  do  not  have  di.sadvantages 
as  well  as  advantages.  Perha]>s  two  strong  missions  in  a city  like 
Bangkok  would  each  do  more  with  the  other  present  than  either 
would  do  alone,  ft  is  not  likely,  however,  that  any  other  strong 
agency  will  enter  Siam,  and  nnle.ss  it  should  be  an  agency  that 
would  unite  with  us  in  the  e.stablishment  of  but  one  native 
church.  T think  it  would  be  unfortunate  to  have  another  body 
in  the  held.  Bnt  I am  inclined  to  think  it  would  be  a gain  if 
some  other  .strong  agency  would  come  in  to  divide  with  us  the 
task,  but  to  iinite  with  us  in  developing  the  work  as  a single 
work. 

X.  Term  of  t^ervk-e  and  Furlonnhx.  The  jji'esent  term  of 
service  in  Siam  is  six  years,  followed  by  a twelve-months’  fur- 
lough at  home,  with  time  for  travel  and  traveling  expenses  pro- 
vided by  the  Board.  This  arrangement  .seems  to  be  generally 
satisfactory  and  is  j)ro])er  from  the  f>oint  of  view  of  health,  pro- 
vided the  missionaries  take  annual  vacations,  as  they  should  do. 
Several  suitable  resorts,  as  Dr.  Bovaird  points  out.  are  now 
available,  and  such  facilities  are  sure  to  improve.  Some  mis- 
sionaries think  that  a five-year  term  of  service  with  41  .six-months’ 
furlough,  and  others  that  a five-year  term  with  a nine-months’ 
furlough  would  be  better.  The  long  furlough  breaks  up  the 
work,  and  the  latter  part  of  it  becomes  teflious  to  .some  workers 
who  are  anxious  to  return  to  the  field.  Some  say  it  is  the  la.st 
year  of  the  term  of  service  that  is  the  hardest.  But  it  is  a little 
ditticult  to  know  how  to  dispense  with  the  last  year,  as  the  Irish- 
man found  when  he  tried  to  get  rid  of  the  end  of  a piece  of  rope 
by  cutting  it  off.  There  will  always  l>e  a last  year,  and  the  ex- 
])ectation  of  getting  home  will  always  make  that  year  both  hard- 
er and  easier  than  other  years.  Some  missionaries  think  that 
the  third  year  is  the  hardest  in  the  case  of  the  fir.st  term,  that 
after  the  first  tenn  has  ])assed  it  does  not  matter  much  what 
the  length  of  term  is.  Probably  the  present  arrangement  is 
the  best  that  could  be  proposed.  Certainly  if  any  reduction  of 
the  term  of  service  is  to  be  made  there  should  be  also  a reduc- 
tion of  the  term  of  fnidough. 

In  connection  with  the  ontfit  of  new  missionaries  it  is  well 
to  remember  that  they  can  probably  do  better  in  Singapore  than 
they  can  do  at  home.  There  are  British  outfitting  houses  there 
which  offer  iinusual  arrangements  for  household  equipments. 

XI.  Extra  territoriality  and  Property  Titles.  If  Turkey 
and  Persia  are  exce])ted,  as  perhaps  they  should  be,  there  re- 
main only  three  nations  in  Asia  which  retain  their  own  sov- 
ereignty, Ja])an,  and  China,  and  Siam.  With  the  exception  of 
Japan,  each  of  these  nations  recognizes  the  extra-territorial  jur- 
isdiction of  Western  nations  over  their  citizens  living  in  these 

152 


Asiatic  states.  While  there  liave  been  adequate  reasons  for  this 
jurisdiction,  and  Avliile  it  is  still  probably  advantageous  to  some 
of  these  nations,  it  is  a pi-ovision  wliich  they  naturally  and  in- 
creasingly dislike.  Years  ago,  by  (he  reformation  of  her  prisons 
and  her  judicial  system,  and  tlie  promulgation  of  new  law  codes, 
Japan  secured  the  surrender  of  the  extra-territorial  rights  of 
Western  governments.  Siam  has  been  for  years  anxious  to 
secure  the  same  relief.  Some  years  ago,  by  the  treaty  of  1909, 
the  Siamese  Government  transferred  to  the  British  Government 
four  states  with  adjacent  islands  in  the  southwestern  peninsula, 
and  made  a number  of  other  concessions,  and  Great  Britain  as- 
sumed the  indebtedness  to  the  Siamese  Government  of  the  terri- 
tories transferred,  and  transferred  jurisdiction  over  all  British 
subjects  in  Siam  either  to  the  ordinary  Siamese  courts  or  to  the 
Siamese  international  courts,  with  the  understanding  that  the 
jurisdiction  of  these  international  courts  should  be  “transferred 
to  the  ordinary  Siamese  courts  after  the  j)romulgation  and  the 
coming  into  force  of  the  Siamese  codes,  namely  the  penal  code, 
the  civil  and  commercial  code,  the  code  for  procedure,  and  the 
law  for  the  organization  of  courts.”  France  also,  by  the  treaty 
of  1907,  in  connection  with  various  concessions  from  Siam,  trans- 
ferred to  the  jurisdiction  of  the  ordinary  Siamese  courts  in  some 
cases,  and  of  the  Siamese  international  courts  in  others,,  all 
Asiatic  subjects  and  j)roteges  of  France,  but  not  European- 
French  subjects.  By  these  treaties  British  and  Erench  subjects 
acquired  all  the  rights  of  Siamese  subjects  in  the  matter  of 
property. 

In  19i:>,  Denmark,  by  a treaty  dealing  with  this  cpiestion  alone, 
surrendered  hei-  con.sular  jurisdiction  in  Siam,  and  in  return 
Danish  subjects  acquii-ed  all  the  rights  of  Siamese  subjects  in 
the  matter  of  i>roperty. 

For  some  years  negotiations  have  been  going  on  between  the 
Siamese  and  the  American  Governments  with  regard  to  the  sur- 
render of  our  American  extra-territorial  jurisdiction.  In  Nov., 
1909,  Mr.  Westengard,  then  the  General  Adviser  of  the  Siamese 
Government,  laid  the  whole  matter  ladore  the  Board’s  attorney, 
Mr.  Stiger,  the  Executive  ('ouncil,  and  Dr.  E.  I*.  Dunlap,  Dr.  J. 
W.  McKean  and  the  Kev.  Win.  Harri.s,  Jr.,  who  were  at  home 
at  the  time.  In  a letter  to  the  mission.  Dr.  Fulton,  of  Japan, 
who  in  Dr.  Brown’s  absence  in  the  Far  East,  was  acting  as 
Secretary  at  the  time,  reported  this  conference  and  the  subse- 
quent action  of  the  Board,  to  the  Siam  missions,  as  follows: 

November  18,  1909. 

To  the  S'oim  Mission. 

Dear  Friends: — 1 would  rejiort  that  on  November  (Jth  a very 
pleasant  conference  took  place  with  the  repre.seutative  of  the 
Siamese  Government,  Mr.  .Jens  I.  Westengard,  at  which  were 
pre.sent  the  members  of  the  Executive  Council,  Mr.  Stiger,  the 
Board’s  Attorney,  Dr.  E.  I*.  Dunlap,  Dr.  J.  W.  McKean  and  the 

153 


Kev.  William  Harris,  Jr.,  represent  in  the  Siamese  and  Laos 
Missions.  ]\Ir.  Westeiifjaid  onllined  the  desire  of  the  Siamese 
Goveriimeht  for  a revision  of  the  Tieaty  with  the  Unitesl  States 
of  America  which  would  aholisli  ('onsular  juris<liction  and 
bring  American  citizens  under  the  jurisdiction  of  the  laws  of 
Siam  after  the  manner  of  the  British  Treaty  recently  negotiated. 
In  view  of  the  fact  that  the  most  important  part  of  American 
interests  in  Siam  was  missicuiary,  ^Ir.  We.stengard  desired  an 
expression  from  the  Boai-d  as  to  its  attitude  on  the  subject.  He 
also  j)resented  a memorandum  on  the  matter  of  the  Board's 
Itrojjerty  interests  in  Siam  and  Laos  wliich  would  safeguard  those 
interests  by  guaranteeing  the  continuance  of  lea.ses  of  land  hith- 
erto granted  by  the  Govern  men  t as  long  as  such  land  was  used 
for  missionary  pui-])Oses  and  also  make  it  possible  for  the  Board 
to  obtain  good,  clear  title  to  lands  which  it  now  posse.sses  with- 
out such  title  and  for  which  it  may  justly  claim  title  if  accord- 
ed the  same  rights  as  Siamese  sidtjects. 

The  missionaries  were  asked  to  express  their  opinions  with 
reference  to  the  whole  matter  which  lliey  did  most  impres.sively 
in  Siam’s  favor.  They  recalled  the  generous  treatment  which 
had  always  been  accorded  them  by  the  Siamese  Government, 
and  the  imi»rovement  in  recent  years  of  Siamese  laws  and  de- 
velopment of  her  institutions  in  such  manner  as  justified  her 
ill  seeking  complete  autonomy  and  claiming  the  right  of  juris- 
diction over  all  peoples  dwelling  within  her  borders.  They  ex- 
jiressed  them.selves  also  as  satisfied  with  the  arrangement  re- 
garding our  projierty  interests  and  indicated  their  judgment 
that  Siam  would  itrobably  do  even  more  than  the  memorandum 
jiroposed  when  the  time  came  to  carry  it  into  effect. 

In  view  of  this  favorable  te.stiniony  from  the  missionaries  as 
representing  the  consensus  of  missionary  opinion  and  the  judg- 
ment of  all  those  present  at  the  conference  that  a sympathetic 
attitude  on  the  jiart  of  the  Board  to  the  desires  of  the  Siamese 
Government  would  not  only  he  safe  hut  wise  and  right,  it  was 
unaiiimouslj'  voted: 

“To  recommend  to  the  Board  of  Foreign  Missions  that  it  ex- 
jiress  to  the  State  I)e])ai'tnient  its  cordial  readine.s.s.  with  the 
approval  of  the  American  Government,  to  have  the  Presbyterian 
missionaries  in  Siam  jiass  under  the  full  jurisdiction  of  the 
Siamese  Government.” 

This  action  of  the  Conference  was  reported  to  the  Board  at 
its  meeting  on  Monday.  Xov.  loth,  when  a clear  statement  also 
of  the  whole  situation  was  made  to  the  Board,  whereupon  the 
Board  voted  to  ajiprove  of  the  action  which  had  been  taken  at 
the  Conference. 

I quote  further  from  the  Minutes  of  the  Board: 

“With  respect  to  the  niemoraiidum  regarding  American  mis- 
sionary lands  agreed  upon  by  Mr.  Westengard  and  Mr.  King, 
the  American  Minister  to  Siam,  the  Board  expressed  its  grati- 
fication at  this  agreement  and  at  the  good  will  ever  displayed 

15-t 


toward  the  missions  by  the  Siamese  Government.  It  has  no 
desii'e  to  hold  lands  under  lease  from  the  o<)yernment  or  other- 
wise, exrei)t  for  missionary  purposes.  In  making  note  of  the 
agreement  on  its  minntes,  it  was  voted  to  pnt  on  record  the 
Board’s  understanding  of  Section  I,  as  explained  by  Mr.  Wes- 
tengard,  namely,  that  under  this  section,  reading  as  follows: 

‘‘  ‘As  to  lands  for  which  the  missions  now  possess  papers  of 
any  kind,  they  should  apply  to  have  title-papers  issued  in  the 
regular  way,’  the  missions  may  apply  for  full  title  to  any  prop- 
erties which  they  now  hold,  to  which  they  believe  that  they  can 
e.stablish  valid  title  under  Siamese  law,  even  though  they  may 
not  possess,  in  every  case,  pa])ers  for  such  properties.” 

As  you  may  know,  Mr.  We.steiigai’d  is  here  to  negotiate  a re- 
vision of  the  Treaty  with  America  and  he  requests  that  for  the 
present  this  Conference  and  the  whole  related  .subject  be  re- 
garded as  confidential.  It  was  felt,  however,  that  it  would  not 
be  out  of  place  to  share  this  confidence  with  our  missionaries 
oil  the  field  who  could  be  trusted  to  be  silent  until  the  Treaty 
was  consummated. 

You  are,  therefore,  in  all  ju-obability  about  to  jiass  through 
the  experience  which  we  in  .lapan  jiassed  through  about  ten 
years  ago  when  we  gave  uj)  our  consulai-  jirotection  and  came 
under  -laiiauese  law.  During  this  decade  Ave  have  suffered  no 
injury  and  Ave  feel  as  safe  under  the  jirotection  of  the  Japanese 
GoA’ernment  as  Ave  do  und(*r  that  of  our  own  country.  Further- 
more, the  trust  imj)os(*d  in  .Ja])an  by  the  foreign  governments  in 
committing  the  interests  of  their  nationals  to  her  care  has  resulted 
in  very  greatly  imjiroving  relations  betAveen  -lapan  and  other 
countries.  1 feel  auu-v  sure,  therefore,  that  you  can  look  forward 
to  the  proj)os(*d  change  Avith  confidence  and  in  the  future  Avill 
be  able  to  look  back  ujion  it  Avith  thanksgiving. 

With  be.st  AA'ishes  to  all  the  members  of  the  mission  and  jiray- 
ing  God’s  blessing  njion  you,  I remain, 

\’ery  sincei-ely  yonr.s, 

George  W.  Fulton. 

The  provisions  regarding  the  titles  to  missionary  ])ro])erty 
incorjioraled  in  th(‘  memorandum  agrwd  u|)on  by  >Ir.  Westen- 
gard  and  Mr.  King,  so  far  as  they  are  relevant  here,  Avere  as 
folloAvs: 

“As  to  the  lands  foi-  Avhich  the  mi.ssions  noAV  jiossess  papers  of 
any  kind  they  .should  apply  to  have  title  papers  issued  in  the 
regular  Avay. 

“.\s  to  lands  held  under  lease  from  government  or  of  Avhich 
the  missions  ar(‘  othenvise  in  h‘gal  occujmtion,  the  Kianie.se  Gov- 
ernment Avill  not  interrujit  the  possession  by  the  missions  so 
long  as  they  continue  to  use  the  land  for  mission  purposes. 

“It  should  be  understood  that  the  Siamese  Government  is 
not  identified  in  any  Avay  Avith  Avat  administration,  that  is  to 
say,  the  foregoing  understanding  must  not  be  construed  as  a 

155 


])roiniso  by  llu*  <>()V(*rnnipnt  lo  iiitorfere  with  lands  held  and 
claiincd  by  )(*l ijiions  anthoril ies  whetluM'  Rnddhist  or  of  any 
oth(*r  faith. 

“Of  coiii-.se  all  mission  lands  aic  ludd  subject  lo  llie  exercise 
by  the  Siaiiie.se  (Jov(*rnnien1  of  the  ri<iht  of  eminent  domain.” 

Foi-  various  rea.sons  the  nejjotialions  have  been  in  abeyance. 
And  more  is  involved  in  Siam’s  desire  than  the  abolition  of 
extra  territoriality.  Sbe  is  anxious  to  recover  alsrt  her  tariff 
autonomy.  As  was  the  case  in  the  early  years  with  Japan,  she 
is  bound  liy  foiei<>u  treaties  which  fix  tlie  amount  of  imiiort 
duties  wliich  she  may  charf>;e,  at  three  per  cent.  Tlie  result  is  as 
has  been  jioiuted  out  elsewhere,  that  the  jjovernment  has  felt 
constrained  to  resort  to  forms  of  taxation  which  are  economical- 
ly and  morally  unwise  but  which  seem  to  it  to  be  the  most  j)rac- 
ticable  ways  of  ju-ovidinj?  the  revenues  needed.  Sovereignty  over 
her  own  tariff  imjiosts  would  make  it  possible  for  her  to  suppress 
oj)iuni  and  gambling  and  other  evils  from  which  she  now  derives 
a revenue,  and  it  may  confidently  be  believed  that  self-interest 
as  well  as  higher  motives  would  lead  Siam  to  do  this.  None 
of  the  foreign  nations  have  surrendered  their  Treaty  abridge- 
ments of  Siam’s  sovereignty  in  this  regard,  and  of  c*ourse  until 
they  all  do,  or  so  long  as  any  one  nation  retains  such  abridge- 
ments, Siam  is  hel]iless  to  reform  her  revenue  system. 

This  is  the  situation  of  which  Mr.  Hamilton  King,  for  four- 
teen years  the  greatly  resjiected  Minister  of  our  government  in 
Bangkok,  spoke  with  earnest  feeling  in  a speech  describing  a 
missionary  tour  which  he  had  taken  iji  southern  Siam  with  Dr. 
Dunlap.  Speaking  of  the  district  of  Xakon,  he  said,  ‘‘This  di.s- 
trict  is  especially  interesting  just  now  becaiise  of  the  attempt 
that  has  been  made  here  by  the  government  to  do  away  Arith 
the  gambling  houses.  In  this  endeavor  the  influence  of  the 
missionary  has  been  potent  also.  After  .some  years  of  almost 
entire  abolition  of  these  sho])s.  on  other  advice  they  were  again 
admitted  a year  ago.  The  result  was  .so  jiatent  and  so  unfavor- 
able that  they  have  now  bmi  abolished  again,  and  the  opinion 
of  the  large  majority  of  those  competent  to  speak  is  that  with- 
out gambling  the  jteople  of  the  <listrict  are  better  fed  and  better 
clothed,  there  is  less  indebtedness  and  less  theft,  the  crops  are 
better  cared  for  and  the  local  trade  is  better,  the  homes  are  more 
comfortable  and  the  people  ha])pier.  Today  the  district  of  Nakon 
is  one  of  the  most  ])rosperous  in  Siam,  and  this  is  largely  due  to 
the  fact  that  gamldiug  has  been  abolishenl.  Yet  with  all  this 
local  evidence  against  it  the  iiuestiou  of  gambling  in  Siam  is  a 
serious  (piestion.  From  the  oriental  point  of  view  it  must  be 
remembered  that  this  question  is  entirely  bereft  of  the  moral 
aspect.  With  Siam  it  is  an  economical  (piestion  simply  and 
along  this  line  alone  it  is  being  fought  put  by  some  of  the 
ablest  men  of  the  government  on  inther  side.  Here  the  question 
is:  will  a district  in  which  no  government  gambling  houses  exist. 
Imcanse  of  improved  conditions,  j)rove  so  j)rodnctive  of  revenue 

15C 


as  to  ])ay  revenue  equal  to  llie  aiuouut  i-eceivefl  under  tlie  ordi- 
nary conditions,  pins  the  revenue  collected  from  the  gambling' 
houses? 

“Experience  has  demonstrated  to  the  Ignited  States  that  the 
easiest  and  least  hni-densome  method  of  ]>roviding  for  public 
revenues  is  by  tariff  duties.  Siam  must  have  revenues  to  meet 
the  expenses  of  her  g’overnment.  By  the  extra-territorial  treaties 
made  with  Siam  she  is  ])rohibited  from  charging  more  than  the 
nominal  tariff  duties  of  three  per  cent,  on  her  imports.  Denied 
by  the  treaties  ‘the  easiest  and  least  bnrden.some  method  of 
providing  for  public  revenues,’  it  may  be  of  interest  to  ns,  as 
citizens  of  the  Tainted  States  to  note,  that  of  the  entire  revenues 
of  45,540,000  ticals  estimated  for  the  pi-esent  year,  Siam  will 
raise  10,105,587  ticals  or  over  42  per  cent,  of  all  her  revenues 
from  the  gambling,  spirit,  oj)inm,  and  lottery  farms,  while  but 
4,:>S4,01d  ticals  will  be  raised  from  her  tariff  duties.  Gambling 
alone  in  the  way  of  games  and  lotteries  yielded  last  year  7,802,- 
785  ticals,  while  the  import  dues  for  the  yeai*  but  1,007,025.  The 
rnite<l  States  is  paying  thomsands  of  dollars  every  year  to  plant 
the  seed  of  Christian  civilization  in  Siam;  and  the  work  being 
done  by  the  missionaries  is  a wholesome  and  beneficial  work. 
But  what  of  the  business  methods  fhaf  lead  ns  to  hold  the  whip 
hand  of  neces.sity  over  fhe  Government  of  Siam,  driving  her  to 
re.sort  for  revenues  to  a ]»rocess  which,  by  encouraging  vice,  nulli- 
fies many  times  ovei-  every  dollar  exjumded  in  missions  within 
her  borders!” 

W(‘  believe  that  Siam  is  (mfithMl  fo  ask  that  onr  juris- 
diction should  end  and  oni-  Aimn-ican  missionary  interests 
pass  nndei-  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Siamese  international  courts, 
and  later  nndei"  the  jnrisdii  tion  of  tin*  oi'dinary  Siame.se  courts, 
after  the  promnlgatiun  and  the  coming  info  force  of  the  Siamese 
Codes.  I think  that  with  exciqitions,  this  is  the  general  feeling 
of  onr  missionaries. 

Onr  own  view  is  that  tin*  missionary  interests  should  be  pre- 
pared to  accejit  Siamese  jurisdiction  without  the  .suggestion  of 
any  sjiecial  consideration.  It  ought  to  lx*  enough  for  ns  to  enjoy, 
as  we  should  under  a new  tri'aty,  the  full  rights  of  Siamese 
subjects.  With  the  consent,  however,  either  of  the  Siamese  Gov- 
(‘rnment  or  of  the  Lao  states  when  they  were  qnasi-independent, 
onr  missions  anpiired  many  projierty  interests.  Onr  titles  to 
the.se  are  of  varying  character.  ( 1 i Onr  jiroperties  in  Bangkok 
and  within  tin*  twenty-foni"  hour  limit  ari*  held  absolutely  under 
the  laws  allowing  such  tenni'(>.  i2i  The  i-ianainder  of  onr  jiroji- 
erties  in  southern  Siam,  in  the  citii's  of  Ivajabnri,  I’etchabnri, 
Nakon  Si-itamarat,  Taji  T(‘ang,  and  I'itsannloke  and  any  ont- 
stations,  ar(‘  held  iindm-  lease,  some  under  ten,  some  under 
twmity  year  leasi*,  snbj(‘ct  to  renewal  and  ridmbnr.sement  by  the 
g()\'(M"ii men t lor  any  ex|M*iidit nres  w<*  havi*  mad(‘  in  imjii'oving 
prop(‘rty  which  the  government  may  l•(‘claim,  or  as  in  the  case  of 
I’etchabnri,  under  imhdinite  lease  subject  to  six  months’  notice 

157 


on  the  part  of  tlie  j^overninent  of  its  pui^iose  to  reclaim  the  prop- 
erty. f.‘t)  Pro])erty  ac(piii-ed  in  the  Montlion  Baya])  since  the 
extension  of  Siamese  administration  there  is  generallj’  held  under 
twenty-year  lease  from  the  fjovernment  subject  to  renewal,  etc. 
(4)]\rost  of  onr  property  in  this  montlion,  however,  was  secnreil 
from  or  under  the  old  Lao  Phows  or  chiefs.  Some  of  it.  for 
examjile,  the  hospital  in  Chieii"  Mai,  was  <>:iven  to  ns  on  condition 
that  it  should  be  used  for  missionaiw  purposes,  but  most  of  it 
was  secured  either  by  <;ift  or  purchase  unconditionally.  Ke- 
f^ardin<l;  only  one  piece  of  it,  so  far  as  1 know,  could  any  question 
be  raised  under  the  foui-lh  section  of  the  understanding  between 
Mr.  King  and  Mr.  Westengard,  that,  namely,  referring  to  wat 
projierty  and  I am  inclined  to  think  that  even  this  holding  of 
ours  will  fall  justly  under  the  first  section  rd'  the  understanding 
between  Mi-.  King  and  Mr.  Westengard  as  amended  b}'  Mr.  Wes- 
tengard and  so  recorded  in  the  minute  of  our  Boai’d  in  the  letter 
of  November  1(S,  190b.  This  jiiece  of  jiroperty  is  a comer  of  our 
jiress  compound  in  riiieng  Mai  on  which  there  is  still  standing 
a small,  ruined  pagoda. 

With  regard  to  our  lands  held  under  lease  from  the  Siamese 
Boverument,  we  recognize  the  justice,  and  indeed  the  great  gen- 
erosity, of  the  government’s  agreement  through  Mr.  Westengard 
to  make  the  lease  of  these  lands  jiermanent  for  as  long  a time 
as  we  continue  to  use  them  for  missionaiw  purposes.  In  the  case 
of  all  our  other  lands,  however,  both  those  for  which  we  possess 
])roper  papers  and  those  of  which  we  are  otherwise  in  proper 
and  legal  occujiation  (many  titles  in  the  Montlion  Bayap  being 
legal  titles  for  which  no  ]>apers  have  ever  existed  i we  should  be 
glad  under  the  new  arrangements  to  secure  full  and  unqualified 
titles  under  Siamese  law. 

1 should  think  that  full  effect  could  be  given  to  this  view,  ac- 
ceptable, as  I understand  from  the  Board's  minute  it  was.  to  Mr. 
Westengard  by  transferring  the  clause,  “or  of  which  the  missions 
are  otherwise  in  legal  occupation”  from  the  second  paragraph  of 
the  agreement  between  IMi*.  King  and  Mr.  Westengard  and  insert- 
ing it  in  the  first  jiaragraph  so  that  these  two  jiaragraphs  would 
read  as  follows: 

‘T.  As  to  the  lauds  for  which  the  missions  now  jiossess  papers 
of  any  kind  oi-  of  which  the  missions  are  otherwise  in  legal  occupa- 
tion they  should  ai>ply  to  have  title  papers  issued  in  the  regular 
way.” 

“II.  As  to  the  lands  held  under  lease  from  government,  the 
Siamese  Government  will  not  interrujtt  the  i)ossession  by  the  mis- 
sions as  long  as  they  continue  to  use  the  laud  for  mission  pur- 
poses.” 

I wish  to  .say  that  we  have  the  fullest  confidence  in  the  Siamese 
(lovernmeut  and  in  its  good  will  and  fair  dealing.  If  our  treaty 
is  revised  and  the  full  sovereignty  of  the  Siamese  Government 
is  recognized,  I believe  that  both  the  government  and  the  courts 
will  do  what  is  just  and  right  in  the  matter  of  our  pi-operties. 

158 


In  the  early  years  Siam  did  not  reseat  the  extra-territorial 
jurisdiction.  Indeed,  as  a .statement  in  the  “Bangkok  Times 
itirectory”  for  1914  remarks,  “The  principle  that  Europeans 
brought  up  under  a totally  different  system  of  law  and  having 
totally  different  habits  and  customs  from  the  inhabitants  of  the 
country,  should  have  recourse  to  tribunals  where  their  own  law 
and  customs  were  administered  by  their  own  Consuls  or  Judge, 
appeared  so  .self-evident  to  the  Siamese  authorities  of  that  time 
that  they  had  no  hesitation  in  admitting  it.  In  fact  the  Siamese 
authorities  probably  welcomed  tlie  idea  of  Foreigm  Consuls  deal- 
ing witli  their  own  subjects  as  an  easy  solution  of  the  difficulties 
of  administrative  and  judicial  control  of  unknown  races.”  Now, 
however,  tlie  Siamese  (Tovernment  feels  strongly  the  desire  to 
secure  the  restoration  of  its  full  jurisdiction.  The  present  situ- 
ation is  regarded  as  humiliating.  The  government  nevertheless 
is  dealing  with  it  in  excellent  .sj)irit  and  with  patience  and  self- 
restraint,  as  language  like  this  attributed  to  the  King  indicates, 
“It  is  thus  apparent  that  extra  territoriality  is  a thing  that  is 
inconvenient  for  everybody  concerned,  except  those  who  find  a 
use  for  it  from  ulterior  motives.  One  must,  therefore,  give 
those  of  the  foreign  j)owers,  who  still  exercise  extra-territoriality 
in  onr  country,  the  credit  of  believing  that  they  would  be  will- 
ing to  .surrender  it  could  they  but  be  convinced  of  our  perfect 
stability. 

“As  a j)atriotic  Siamese,  I naturally  believe  that  we  are  now 
<piite  ready  to  be  fully  trusted,  that  our  international  credit  is 
on  tlie  whole  a good  one,  and  that  foi-eigners  really  need  have 
no  fear  that  we  shall  misuse  otir  i»ower.s,  should  consular  juris- 
diction be  all  i-emoved  fi-om  o)ir  country. 

“But  liow  to  convince  the  nationals  concerned;  this  is  tin* 
(piestion,  and  a most  imj)oi-tant  one,  whicli  is  of  vital  interest 
to  onr  country. 

“It  is  no  good  for  the  (lovcn-mmmt  alom*  to  give  a.ssnrances. 
Von  and  1,  and  evenone  of  ns  who  are  i»arts  of  the  Siamese 
nation,  must  all  lielp  in  tlnit  direction,  and  the  way  to  do  so  is 
by  showing  onr.selves  to  be  j»o.ss(‘ss(>d  of  absolute,  ])erfect  stabil- 
ity, both  in  onr  public  and  oni-  ]»rivate  capacities.” 

To  j)rej)are  foi‘  the  day  desiriMl,  Siam  is  jn-essing  forward  the 
work  of  codification  “as  it  has  b(‘en  stipulated  in  the  Treaties 
with  Fi'ance  and  England  that  tin*  system  of  International 
t'onrts  shall  come  to  an  (md  and  the  jurisdiction  of  such  C'onrts 
be  transfeired  to  the  ordinary  Siamese  (’onrts  after  the  promul- 
gation and  coming  into  force  of  the  Siamese  Codes,  viz.,  the 
Fenal  Code,  the  Civil  and  Commercial  Codes,  the  Codes  of  Pro- 
cedure and  the  Law  of  Organization  of  Courts.  In  the  Ti'eaty 
with  Jaj)an  it  has  even  been  sti])nlated  since  so  long  ago  as  189S 
that  nj)on  the  j)romnlgation  and  coming  into  force  of  these  Codes 
the  system  of  Consular  jurisdiction  shall  come  to  an  end  and 
the  .Iapane.se  subjects  in  Siam  shall  be  subject  to  the  jurisdic- 


tioii  of  tlie  Siamese  (%)urls.”  The  action  of  the  Board  in  Nov., 
1 !(()!>,  indicated  that  it  l>elieve<l  we  should  not  be  behind  Great 
Britain  and  France  and  Denmark  and  Japan  in  a matter  in 
whicli  in  othei*  lands  we  have  sonjjlit  to  take  a generous  leader- 
ship. Some  of  the  missionaries  feel  that  this  is  perhaps  a matter 
not  for  their  j)ersonal  judgment  but  for  the  judgment  of  the 
American  Government,  and  a few  of  them  realize  as  thoughtful 
Siamese  do,  some  of  the  difficulties  that  may  be  involved,  but  no 
foreigners  in  Siam  have  identified  themselves  as  eaniestly  with 
the  people  as  the  missionaries  have  done,  and  their  supreme  de- 
sire is  to  see  the  Siamese  church  and  the  Siamese  people  and  the 
Siamese  nation  come  to  their  own  lightful  place. 


R.  E.  S. 


It.  A REVIEW  OF  THE  MEDICAL  MISSION  WORK 

IN  SIAM 


BY  DAVID  BOVAIRD,  M.D. 

We  began  our  experienee  in  medical  mission  work  in  the  field 
by  visiting  the  station  at  Tap  Teang.  Here  there  is  a hospital 
with  accommodations  for  approximately  30  patients  and  a dis- 
pensary, both  in  charge  of  Dr.  L.  C.  Bulkley  who  at  the  time  of 
our  visit  was  at  home  on  furlough.  The  ho.spital,  during  his 
absence,  was  left  in  the  care  of  Miss  Christiansen,  a trained 
uiir.se.  Owing  to  the  doctor’s  absence  little  active  work  was 
being  carrieil  on  in  the  ho.siiital,  but  in  the  fifteen  mouths  during 
which  she  had  been  in  charge.  Miss  Christiansen  had  been  called 
upon  to  a.ssume  many  unusual  and  grave  responsibilities.  For 
example,  she  had  had  one  patient  with  an  empyema  whose 
chest  she  had  aspirated  repeatedly  and  upon  whom  she  had 
finally  performed  the  ojieration  of  ojiening  the  plural  cavity, 
although  .she  had  had  no  training  that  fitted  her  to  undertake 
such  .serious  ])roce<lures.  She  had  also  i)erformed  a number  of 
minor  operations,  such  as  ojiening  abscesses  and  the  like.  Al- 
together the  fifteen  months  of  the  doctor’s  absence  had  been  a 
jieriod  of  very  severe  trial  for  Miss  Christiansen.  At  the  time 
of  our  visit  the  emjiyema  patient  already  mentioned  was  still 
in  the  hosjiital  and  it  was  evident  that  a further  and  .still  more 
.serious  o])eration,  the  resection  of  several  ribs,  would  be  re- 
quired to  make  his  entire  recovery  jxi.ssible.  This  was  too  .seri- 
ous an  undertaking  for  Miss  Christiansen  and  the  desirability 
of  having  the  jiatient  go  to  Nakon  where  he  could  have  the  ser- 
vices of  Dr.  \'au  Metre  was  discussed.  Rut  when  the  matter 
was  taken  up  with  the  patient  himself  he  declined  to  go  to 
Nakon,  as  it  would  involve  sejiaration  from  his  family  and 
friends,  and  deterniine<l  to  wait  for  the  return  of  Dr.  Bulkley, 
although  that  meant  jiossibly  several  months  longer  of  .suffering. 
Besides  this  jiatient  there  were  in  the  hospital  at  the  time  ten 
or  twelve  patients,  most  of  them  cronic  invalids  reipiiring  little 
more  than  ordinaiw  nursing.  The  dispensary  was  in  charge  of 
a native  assistant  but,  as  well  be  brought  out  later  in  connection 
with  other  hospitals,  the  only  medical  work  cousi.sted  in  the 
sale  of  medicines  to  any  who  applieil  for  them. 

To  illustrate  further  the  cliaracter  of  the  seiwice  that  maj’  be 
demanded  of  the  j)hysician  or  nur.se  in  the  mission  hospital,  we 
may  recount  an  experience  of  Mi.ss  Cliristiansen  that  came  under 
our  own  ob.servation.  Almnt  one  o’clock  in  the  night  following 
our  arrival  Miss  Christiansen  was  liastily  summoned  to  attend 
the  wife  of  one  of  Dr.  Dunlajt’s  native  assistants  at  the  com- 
pound about  a mile  removed  from  the  hospital  and  Dr.  Bulkley’s 

161 


6 — Report  of  Deputa.tlon. 


residence  in  which  ^liss  Christiansen  is  livin};.  She  rose,  called 
her  syce  and  instructed  him  to  harness  the  horse  to  her  small 
wa^on  and  brinj;  him  to  the  door.  No  one  witlmiit  Experience 
in  sncli  matters  would  be  likely  to  guess  just  how  long  that 
simple  procedure  takes  the  native  servant  under  such  conditions. 
Finally  the  wagon  was  brought  to  the  door  and  MLss  Christian- 
sen set  out  on  her  lonely  drive  to  the  distant  compound.  That 
may  seem  a procedure  of  only  ordinary  moment  to  tho.se  accus- 
tomed only  to  home  conditions,  but  it  is  an  entirely  different 
matter  in  a land  where  hardly  anyone  will  venture  out  after 
nightfall  for  fear  of  highwaAinen.  However,  the  journey  was 
safely  made  and  Miss  Christiansen  found  her  patient  .suffering 
severely  either  from  cholera  or  dysentery’;  she  could  not  be  sure 
which.  All  night  long  she  sat  in  the  native  manner  upon  the 
floor  of  the  home  beside  her  patient,  assuming  the  responsibili- 
ties of  both  doctor  and  nurse.  In  the  morning  without  rest  she 
was  obliged  to  take  up  the  regular  duties  of  the  day  in  con- 
nection with  the  service  of  the  hospital.  The  following  morning, 
the  woman,  being  still  sick,  was  brought  into  the  hospital,  her 
affection  proving  to  be  dysentery,  and  before  our  departure  she 
was  well  on  the  way  toward  recoverj’. 

The  most  interesting  problem  in  connection  with  the  work 
of  the  Tap  Teang  hospital  at  the  time  of  our  visit  Avas  that  of 
l\Iiss  Christiansen’s  future.  She  had  come  out  to  the  hospital 
expecting  to  follow  the  lines  of  her  training  as  a nurse,  but  she 
soon  found  that  in  that  sphere  there  was  not  sufficient  work  to 
fully  occupy  her  time.  In  the  operating  room  the  services  of  a 
nur.se  in  a mission  hospital  in  Siam  are  of  cour.se  invaluable, 
but  in  the  wards  of  the  hospital  there  is  really  little  for  her  to 
do.  For  the  most  part  there  are  no  beds  and  no  bedding  such 
as  we  are  accustomed  to  at  home,  but  the  patients  lie  upon  strips 
of  matting  stretched  upon  the  floor  or  upon  the  simplest  of  frames. 
The  jiatients  regularly  bring  with  them  one  or  more  relatives  or 
friends  who  wait  upon  them  and.  in  so  far  as  pos-sible,  render 
such  services  as  nurses  are  wont  to  do  in  our  hospitals.  Miss 
Christiansen  tells  us  that  if  she  were  to  undertake  to  perform 
the.se  services  for  the  patients  she  would  only  lower  herself  in 
their  esteem  and  lessen  her  influence  upon  them. 

It  was  hoped  when  she  first  came  out  that  she  would  be  able 
to  develop  a work  for  herself  among  the  native  women,  but  for 
Ibis  she  finds  her  training  as  a nui*se  inadequate.  To  effectively 
accomplish  .such  a purpose  she  would  require  the  full  training 
of  a physician.  Dr.  Bulkley  had  endeavored  to  develop  her 
usefulness  by  training  her  to  perform  some  of  the  simpler  labora- 
tory procedures,  such  as  the  staining  of  specimens  for  micro- 
scopic work,  but  here  also  she  finds  herself  lacking  in  technical 
proficiency.  Altogether  her  experience  seems  to  indicate  clearly 
that  in  the  mission  hospitals  in  Siam  there  is  no  adequate  field 
for  the  trained  nurse  outside  the  operating  room,  while  in  few. 
if  any.  of  our  hospitals  is  there  sufficient  operative  work  to  fully 

162 


.occupy  a nurses’  time.  The  possibility  is  suggested  that  Miss 
Christiansen  might  find  her  sphere  in  taking  some  of  the  native 
women  and  training  them  to  do  such  work  in  the  wards  as  she 
is  not  lierself  permitted  to  perform.  But  at  the  present  time, 
outside  Bangkok,  it  seems  impossible  to  find  any  of  the  Siamese 
women  who  are  fitted  either  in  education  or  in  inclination  to 
undertake  such  service. 

\oko7i  Sritamaraf.  Here  there  ai*e  a hospital  and  a dispeus- 
aiT  housed  in  a building  of  brick  and  stucco,  b\iilt  as  a memor- 
ial to  the  wife  of  T)r.  Swart,  a physician  recently  in  charge  of 
the  work  at  this  place.  The  building  seems  to  be  the  best  of 
any  of  our  hospitals  iu  Siam.  The  Avork  in  the  hospital  had 
suffered  from  the  resignation  of  Dr.  Swart.  For  a time  it  had 
been  in  charge  of  Dr.  Wachter  who  had  recently  withdrawn  from 
it  to  devote  himself  fully  to  evangelistic  work,  leaving  the  medi- 
cal work  to  the  care  of  Dr.  Van  Metre,  a new  appointee.  Dr. 
Van  ^letre  had  been  only  fifteen  months  in  the  field  and  his  time 
was  still  largely  occupied  in  language  study,  but  he  was  taking 
up  his  work  with  energy'  and  zeal  and  no  doubt  will  carry  it  on 
with  efficiency.  At  the  time  of  our  visit  he  was  planning  a small 
addition  to  the  hospital  for  laboraton'  purposes,  appreciating 
the  fact  tliat  in  these  days  the  clinical  laboratory  is  a vital  part 
of  ever\'  hospital.  He  was  fortunate  in  having  a number  of 
quite  thoi-oughly  trained  native  as.sistants.  who  had  seen  some 
years  of  .service  in  the  ho.spital  under  his  predecessors  and  were 
able  to  be  of  very  material  aid  in  the  work  of  the  institution.  A 
discussion  which  we  heard  with  relation  to  the  future  of  one 
of  these  assistants  opens  to  us  one  of  the  small  but  vexing  prob- 
lems in  connection  with  the  mission  work.  This  assistant,  Nai 
Chang,  by  name,  had  spent  some  years  in  the  seiwice  of  the  hos- 
pital. and  being  a man  of  abilitv,  was  in  receipt  of  a salary  of 
SO  ticals  a month,  paid  out  of  the  receipts  of  the  hospital.  He 
was  a man  of  such  spiritual  qualifications  as  led  the  mission- 
aries in  charge  of  the  station  to  greatly  desire  that  he  .should 
take  up  the  work  of  an  evangelist  and  pastor.  This  would  mean 
that  he  must  accept  the  salarv  usually  given  for  the  evangelist’s 
services  of  but  tlO  ticals  a month,  no  small  sacrifice  to  a.sk  of  any 
man.  The  matter  had  been  under  discussion  for  some  time,  but 
Xai  Chang  had  delayed  action  by  reason  of  the  opposition  of 
some  members  of  his  family  on  account  of  the  money  loss.  Before 
our  departiire,  however,  we  Avere  gratified  to  hear  that  he  had 
])roven  him.self  capable  of  the  sacrifice  and  had  determined  to 
enfei’  the  evangelistic  service. 

At  the  time  of  our  visit  the  hospital  was  well  filled.  There 
were  in  the  Avards  many  cases  illustrating  different  types  of 
troj)ical  disease.  There  were  numbers  of  out-patients  visiting 
the  hospital  for  treatment.  The  disj)ensary  was  active,  and  there 
\ver(‘  satisfactory  indications  that  the  long  years  of  seiwice  of 
the  varifuis  missionaries  who  had  seiwed  in  the  hospital  had 
built  uj)  an  enduring  Avork. 


163 


f'etchaburi.  The  hospital  at  tliis  ])lace  was  small,  having  but 
eight  beds,  but  as  has  already  been  suggested,  the  number  of 
beds  in  a hospital  in  Siam  by  no  means  determines  the  limit  of 
its  rapacity  for  receiving  ))atieuts,  and  with  but  eight  beds  in 
sight  we  found  the  hos])ital  e<iuip])ed  with  two  o])erating  rooms, 
one  of  them,  the  best  furnished  of  any  of  our  mission  hosj)itals. 
The  hos])ital  and  dis]»eusary  have  for  some  years  bmi  under 
the  cai-e  of  Dr.  McDauiell  who  had  been  recently  com[)elled  to 
return  home  on  account  of  the  illness  of  Mrs.  McDaniell.  The 
work  was  therefore  left  in  charge  of  two  or  three  native  assist- 
ants, under  the  supervision  of  Mr.  Paul  Eakin.  These  men  were 
conducting  the  disj)ensarv  and  treating  some  out-patients,  but 
there  was  no  active  hospital  woi-k  going  on.  One  of  the  regret- 
table results  of  the  sudden  withdrawal  of  a physician  from 
his  station  when  there  is  no  other  medical  missionary  to  take 
his  ]>lace.  was  bi-ought  to  our  attention  here.  At  the  time  of  Dr. 
McDaniell’s  dej>arture  no  inventory  of  the  me<lical  property 
in  the  hosj)ital  and  dispensary  was  left,  but  Dr.  McDaniell  wrote 
from  Hong  Kong  that  he  had  mailed  such  a paper  to  Mi*.  Eakin. 
It  had  not,  however,  been  received  and  all  the  apparatus  and 
medicines  were  left  in  the  charge  of  the  native  assistants,  with 
no  pos.sibility  of  an  accounting.  Mr.  Eakin  assured  us  that  to 
undertake  to  make  an  inventory  at  the  time,  or  in  any  way 
dis])lay  the  slightest  mistrust,  would  be  a sure  invitation  for  the 
disapjtearance  of  the  native  assistants  and  ]»robably  of  a con- 
siderable part  of  the  stores  now  in  their  care.  It  would  appear 
to  be  highly  desirable  to  reach  an  early  decision  as  to  whether 
another  man  is  to  be  sent  to  occupy  this  vacant  post  and  if  no 
one  is  available  ste])s  should  be  taken  to  j»reserve  the  hospital 
])roperty. 

Rofhiiri.  We  were  inforimsl  that  there  is  at  this  place  a 
dis])ensary  in  charge  of  a native  assistant  trained  in  one  of  our 
hospitals,  a man  of  some  ability,  able  to  carry  on  a limite<l 
medical  work  and  to  ])erform  some  sim])ler  oj>erations,  but  as 
our  only  view  of  the  place  was  that  secured  from  the  car  window 
as  our  train  }>assed  through,  I am  unable  to  report  further  upon 
the  work. 

Pitsaiiuloke.  Here  we  found  Dr.  Shellmau  taking  great  pleas- 
ure ill  the  erection  of  a new  hosjiital  and  dispen.'^ary  to  take  the 
place  (d‘  the  small  and  inadequate  establishment  in  which  he 
liad  worked  for  many  years.  The  new  institution,  wholly  paid 
for  by  funds  collected  on  the  held,  was  to  include  a dispensary, 
a dressing  room,  an  operating  room,  ami  wards  suflicieut  to  ac- 
commodate about  30  jiatients.  This  new  structure  was  rapidly 
nearing  completion  when  we  jiaid  our  visit.  Its  erection  is  con- 
vincing evidence  of  the  faithful  service  which  Dr.  Shellmau  had 
been  rendering  for  many  years  in  his  community  and  a demon- 
stratioii  of  the  value  of  continuous  service.  Dr.  Shellmau  having 
been  in  IMtsaiiiiloke  for  seven  or  eight  years.  Besides  the  hos- 
pital and  dispensary  on  the  mission  compound  there  is  a branch 

164 


dispensary  in  the  city  on  the  other  side  of  the  riyer  and  a third 
dispensary  lias  lieen  ojiened  in  a town  about  70  miles  away. 
Each  of  these  branch  disjiensaries  is  made  a center  for  the  dis- 
tribution of  gospel  literature  and  for  preaching  at  times  to  the 
people  who  may  be  gathered  there.  As  an  eyidence  of  the  extent 
and  actiyity  of  the  disjien.sary  service.  Dr.  Shellnian  informed  us 
tliat  he  dispensed  in  these  several  de]»ots  as  much  as  ten  pounds 
of  iodine  of  potas.sium  in  a single  month. 

The  lack  of  medical  men  in  the  South  Siam  Mission  has 
thrown  unusual  Imrdeus  uiion  Dr.  Shellman  who  has  been  called 
upon  from  time  to  time  to  go  to  Bangkok  and  even  to  Petcha- 
buri,  these  journeys  entailing  an  absence  of  several  days,  in  one 
instance  almost  a week,  from  his  own  work  with  resulting  dis- 
turbance of  his  usual  program.  He  and  Mrs.  Shellman  were 
both  very  desirous  of  having  the  need  of  more  men  in  this  field 
recognized  and  sui»plied  as  jiromidly  as  possible.  At  the  time 
of  our  visit  theie  were  four  hospitals  in  this  mis.siou  (five  if 
Katburi  be  included  in  tbe  comjmtationi  with  but  two  medical 
missionaries  on  duty,  one  of  these  an  untrieil  man  whose  time 
was  still  largely  occujded  in  language  study.  No  argument  is 
needed  t(»  make  it  clear  that  such  a condition  of  affairs  is  highly 
disadvantageous  to  the  successful  ]»rosecution  of  medical  mis- 
sion work  and  that  ev(‘ry  j)ossible  effort  should  at  once  be  made 
to  i)ut  into  the  field  a sutticient  number  of  men  to  adequately 
operate  the  hosj)itals  we  have.  Ajid  as  a corollary  it  should 
follow  that  there  should  la*  no  further  extension  of  medical  work 
in  this  field  in  any  dir(*ction  until  these  hos])itals  are  adequately 
manned  and  pi-ovision  made  to  ])revent  the  recurrence  of  sucli 
a situation  as  at  ju-esent  <*xists.  It  is  time  that  since  bur  de- 
jiartnre  from  Siam,  Dr.  Bulklev  has  returned  to  Taj)  Teang  and 
the  situation  to  that  extent  has  been  relieved,  but  if  my  recol- 
lection .serves  me  rightly.  Dr.  Shellman's  furlough  is  soon  due 
and  unless  he  remains  at  his  post  b(*yond  the  usual  period,  the 
same  situation  as  jirevailed  in  1!M.“)  will  be  rejiroduced  the 
succeeding  year.  It  seems  to  me  that  (*very  interest  of  the  work 
demands  an  incr(*as(*  in  tin*  number  of  physicians  in  the  South 
Siam  Mission,  such  an  increase  as  would  make  it  unneces.sary 
to  close  a hosjfital  when  the  medical  officer  is  obliged  to  be  ab- 
sent either  on  furlough  or  ,sick  leave.  If  a snificient  number  of 
|)hysicians  cannot  be  obtained  to  thus  man  our  present  insti- 
tutions it  would  seem  tin*  ]»art  of  wisdom  to  close  some  of  the 
hospitals  and  to  concentrate  onr  forces  at  two  ])oints,  say  Nakon 
and  Pitsanuloke,  in  the  hope  of  maintaining  a continuous  .ser- 
vice in  them. 

Ji(i)i(/kok.  Although  onr  Jioard  conducts  no  medical  mission- 
ary work  in  Bangkok  the  conditions  relating  to  hospitals  and 
medical  education  in  that  city  are  of  such  importance  with  re- 
lation to  our  own  work  as  to  demand  consideration.  Some 
eight(H*n  or  nineteen  years  ago  the  Siamese  government  became 
desirous  of  making  a beginning  in  the  education  of  their  stu- 

165 


dents  in  modern  medicine.  T)r.  Georfje  B.  McFarland,  the  son 
ot  a missionarv  and  a man  of  very  nnnsnal  attainments  in  his 
knowlc'djje  of  and  altility  lo  nsc*  the  Sianu*se  lanjfnage,  was  in- 
vited lo  undertake  (lie  developimm  1 ()f  a me<lical  school.  Dr. 
McFarland  altliongh  liolding  (he  degi(*e  of  M.D.,  has  always  con- 
fined himself  largely  to  (he  practice  of  dentistry.  He,  however, 
undertook  the  burden  of  beginning  medical  education  in  Siam 
and  for  eighteen  or  nineteen  years  past  has  devoted  the  larg(?st 
])art  of  his  time  either  lo  teaching  in  the  school  or  to  the  trans- 
lation of  medical  works  into  the  Siame.se  and  the  preparation  of 
lectures  dealing  with  the  various  subjects  compris^  in  the  usual 
courses  of  medical  instruction.  At  the  same  time  he  was  the 
head  of  a large  hosjdtal,  the  Sirirat  Hospital,  an  institution  of 
a hundred  or  a hundred  and  twenty  beds  built  and  conducted 
very  much  after  the  manner  of  a mi.s.sion  hospital  but  with 
s])ecial  wards  for  g^mecologj"  and  obstetrics.  With  these  limite<l 
facilities  and  with  verv  little  aid  except  for  the  co-operation  of 
some  of  the  physicians  of  Bangkok  and  such  assistants  as  he 
could  him.self  train,  Dr.  Mch’’arland  for  many  years  conducted 
the  hospital  and  in.structed  medical  students  as  well  as  condi- 
tions permitted.  Naturally  the  graduates  of  .such  a school  of 
medicine  wei’e,  by  our  standards,  very  imperfecth’  trained.  They 
had  some  knowledge  of  the  more  familiar  diseases  and  of  the 
commoner  medicines  and  the  modes  ot  administering  them,  but 
they  had  no  practical  knowledge  of  surgeiw  and  were  not  quali- 
fied to  undertake  operative  work.  Nearly  all  the  graduates  of 
the  school  have  entered  the  government  service  either  in  the 
army  or  as  district  or  municipal  physicians  in  various  parts  of 
the  country.  In  various  places  they  have  come  in  touch  with 
our  medical  missionaries,  who  tell  us  that  these  government 
physicians,  apparently  recognizing  the  deficiencies  of  their  edu- 
cation have  ahvays  been  ready  to  turn  to  the  medical  mission- 
ary for  help  in  any  ditticult  case  and  especially  for  operative 
work.  Government  officials  and  others  whom  these  government 
physicians  are  expected  to  take  care  of  likewise  turn  to  the 
m^ical  missionary  in  any  grav’e  illnes.s,  apparenth’  with  the 
aijproval  of  the  government  phy.sicians.  The  relations  between 
medical  missionaries  and  government  physicians  have  thus  been 
entirely  friendly  and  helpful.  lu  parts  of  the  countn,"  vaccina- 
tion, originally  introduced  b}'  the  missionaries  and  for  many 
years  practiced  by  them  alone,  has  now  been  turned  over  wholly 
to  the  government  physicians. 

In  connection  with  the  Sirai*at  Hospital  named  above  a be- 
ginning was  also  made  in  the  training  of  nurses.  There  seems 
to  have  been  little  difficulty  in  Bangkok  itself  in  obtaining  a 
sufficient  number  of  young  women  willing  to  undertake  this  ser- 
vice. Many  of  them  are  far  too  young  and  inadequately  edii- 
cated  to  qualify  them  for  the  studies  which  they  are  now  under- 
taking. The  inq)ortant  fact  is  that  some  Siamese  women  willing 
to  perform  the  duties  of  a nurse  have  been  found  and  that  a 

166 


beginning  has  been  made  in  Ibeir  instruction  in  this  important 
brancli  of  medical  service. 

The  Siamese  government  in  accordance  witli  its  progressive 
policy  in  other  branches  of  the  public  service  has  evidently  de- 
termined to  advance  in  the  line  of  medical  education.  A member 
of  the  royal  family,  Prince  Chai  Nart,  has  been  appointed  di- 
rector of  the  medical  school.  The  Prince  has  had  the  advantage 
of  some  thirteen  years  study  in  Germany  in  various  educational 
line.s.  He  is  not  himself  a j)hysician  hut  brings  to  his  new  task 
a thorough  acquaintance  witli  German  standards  and  ideals  in 
medical  education.  He  has  already  brought  into  the  service  of 
the  school  a number  of  well  trained  workers  and  is  evidently  de- 
sirous of  ])roceeding  as  ra])idly  as  the  means  of  the  government 
will  permit  in  the  development  of  a teaching  institution  of  high- 
er grade  than  they  have  thus  far  had  in  Siam. 

At  the  time  of  the  death  of  the  recent  king,  Chulalongkorn,  a 
fund  amounting  to  several  millions  of  ticals  was  collected  for 
the  ])urpose  of  ])roviding  a memorial.  A part  of  this  fund  has 
betm  emi)loyed  in  the  erection  of  a statue  of  the  king  and  the 
construction  of  the  new  coronation  hall.  The  balance  of  it  has 
been  devot{*d  to  the  erection  and  etiuipment  of  a modem  hospital 
in  Bangkok,  known  as  the  Bed  Cross  or  Chulalongkorn  Hos- 
pital. This  ho.spital  was  jtlanned  and  erected  under  the  super- 
vision of  a German  .surgeon  who  very  unfortunately  died  of 
blood  ]»oisoning  just  at  the  time  of  its  opening  about  fifteen 
months  ago.  As  it  now  stands,  it  provides  accommodation  for 
eighty  j>atients,  but  the  ])lans  call  for  the  erection  of  several  ad- 
ditional wings  which  will  largely  increase  its  capacity.  The 
buildings  thus  far  erected  are  of  reenforced^  concrete  construc- 
tion, architecturally  plea.sing  in  aj^pearance,  and  the  furnishings 
thi'oughout  are  elaborate  and  costly.  All  the  beds  are  of  tlie 
latest  hospital  design.  There  are  two  operating  rooms  each 
containing  two  modern  oi)erating  tables  and  with  all  the  fur- 
nishings that  the  latest  American  hosi)ital  could  show.  There 
are  bacteriological  and  chemical  laboratories,  a complete  X-Kay 
(M[uii)inent,  and  a therapeutic  department  containing  the  latest 
patterns  of  hydro-therapeutic  ami  electro-therai)eutic  apparatus. 
In  short  the  e(piipment  of  the  institution  is  as  complete  as  that 
of  the  best  of  our  American  hospitals.  The  medical  director  of 
the  institution  is  a Siame.se  Prince,  while  the  surgical  work  is 
divided  between  a (Jerman  surgeon  of  high  attainment,  a resi- 
dent of  Itangkok,  and  a Siamese  army  officer  who  has  had  the 
advantage  of  nine  years’  training  in  the  London  Hospital.  Taken 
all  in  all,  this  institution  rei)resents  a very  great  advance  over 
anything  j)reviously  known  in  Siam.  Its  work  is  to  be  co-ordi- 
nated with  that  of  the  Medical  School,  the  students  of  which 
are  to  have  the  advantage  of  instruction  and  service  in  its  wards. 
Apj)aivntly  its  first  j)urpo.se  is  to  provide  more  thoroughl}’ 
trained  surgeons  for  the  army  and  other  government  services, 
but  it  is  evident  that  its  influence  will  reach  far  beyond  the  lines 
of  those  departments. 


167 


The  nursing  flej)artnieni  of  this  liospital  is  in  charge  of  Miss 
F>ncy  Dnnhi]),  a Siamese  jn-otege  of  tlie  IJev.  IC.  7’.  Dinilap  of  onr 
own  mission.  She  lias  already  hegnn  the  d(*velopmen1  of  a nurses’ 
training  scliool  and  has  some  twenty  or  more  Siames(?  w<tmen 
under  her  insti-nction.  They  are  to  undergo  a tliree-years’  course 
of  training  and  it  is  understood  that  upon  their  graduation 
they  are  to  receive  a pension  or  retainer  of  something  more  than 
five  ticals  a inontli,  with  the  provision  tliat  tlieir  .services  if  re- 
(juired  sliall  always  be  at  the  command  of  the  government. 

It  is  clear  that  the  establishment  and  e(iuipment  of  this  in- 
stitution in  the  manner  described  marks  the  beginning  of  a new 
era  in  medical  education  in  Siam.  There  is  no  doubt  that  the 
institution  as  it  stands  is  far  beyond  the  capabilities  of  any  staff 
which  the  government  can  at  present  as.semble,  but  doubtless 
the  various  .special  assistants  necessary  to  the  .satisfactory  work- 
ing of  .such  a i)lant  will  be  .secured  in  time.  The  very  existence 
of  this  institution  is  indicative  of  the  high  ideals  of  the  Siamese 
officials  interested  in  medical  education  and  of  their  determina- 
tion to  go  forward  just  as  rapidly  as  the  circumstances  of  the 
government  permit.  When  we  had  gone  over  the  institution  and 
observed  the  perfection  of  its  plans  and  the  elaborateness  of  its 
equipment  we  could  not  help  wondering  what  influence  this 
really  beautiful  hospital  might  have  upon  the  graduates  of  the 
government  medical  school,  especially  with  relation  to  their 
attitude  to  the  mis.sionary  physicians,  compelled  as  the  latter 
are  to  work  with  an  equipment  so  much  inferior  in  both  style 
and  conij)leteness  to  that  of  the  Chulalongkorn  Hospital. 

Prac.  The  ho.spital  in  this  place  is  a small  institution  with 
accommodations  foi*  but  eight  or  ten  patients,  a poorly  eipiip]>ed 
operating  room  and  the  usual  dispen.sary.  It  has  suffered  from 
the  discontinuity  of  the  seiwice  of  the  several  physicians  who 
have  from  time  to  time  been  in  charge  of  it,  has  been  closed  for 
one  or  two  years  and  but  recently  re-opened  in  charge  of  Hr. 
Charles  l*ark,  a new  appointee  who  has  not  yet  completed  his 
language  study  and  is  only  making  a beginning  in  undertaking 
his  medical  and  surgical  work.  The  ta.sk  of  developing  a satis- 
factory hosi)ital  work  in  I’rae  is  rendered  unusually  difficult  by 
reast)ii  of  the  poverty  of  the  people  and  the  absence  of  any  large 
number  of  foreigners  whose  patronage  in  some  of  our  mission 
stations,  especially  Lampang  and  Chieng  Mai,  adds  very  ma- 
terially to  the  income  of  the  hospital.  The  hospital  and  equip- 
ment are  not  only  the  smallest  of  any  of  our  Siam  stations,  but 
the  poorest  as  well.  Perhaps  the  time  of  our  visit  was  inop- 
jiortune  and  we  must  remember  that  as  already  stated.  Dr. 
I’ark  is  only  beginning  his  work.  We  understand  that  in  our 
newer  stations  the  natives  are  so  unfamiliar  with  our  ways  and 
so  fearful  of  anything  that  is  strange  to  them  that  in  order  to 
have  them  come  to  the  hospital  at  all  it  is  necessary  to  accept 
them  practically  on  their  own  terms.  Practically  this  means 
that  instead  of  having  beds  such  as  we  are  accustomed  to  the 

16S 


patieut  is  pei-initted  simply  to  stretch  his  bit  of  matting  upon 
the  floor  of  the  hospital  and  call  that  his  bed.  Furthermore,  he 
is  so  fearful  of  losing  by  thievery  any  bit  of  his  property  that  is 
not  under  his  eye,  that  his  clothing  and  even  his  food  must  be 
kej)t  at  his  bedside.  The  results  of  these  practices  are  doubtless 
satisfactory’  to  the  native  and  make  easier  his  entrance  into  the 
hospital,  but  are  rather  astonishing  to  one  whose  conceptions 
of  what  a hospital  should  be  are  based  upon  observations  at 
home.  Such  conditions  are  part  of  the  trials  that  the  medical 
mi.ssiouary  entering  upon  a new  field  must  accept,  but  it  is  evi- 
dent that  they  materially  impair  the  cpiality  of  the  medical  and 
surgical  .service  which  he  is  prei)ared  to  render  to  his  patients 
and  that  they  should  be  modified  and  amelioi'ated  just  as  j-a])id- 
ly  as  circumstances  will  permit.  To  accomplish  any  definite 
improvement  along  the.se  lines,  however,  means  not  only  that 
the  medical  missionary  shall  have  acapiired  a firm  enough  gri]) 
upon  his  patients  to  induce  them  to  accept  new  and  perhaps  to 
them  objectionable  conditions,  but  that  he  shall  have  at  his 
command  the  money  necessary  to  supply  modern  hospital  equip- 
ment and  to  conduct  the  institution  in  a manner  more  in  har- 
mony with  home  ideals. 

Ldkon  LamjKiiif/.  In  this  city  we  have  the  Chai-les  H.  Van- 
Santvoord  Memorial  Hosj)ital  and  Dis]>ensary  in  charge  of  Dr. 

H.  (’I'ooks.  The  hos])ital  contains  some  fifteen  beds  but  is 
ca])able  of  accommodating,  all  told,  about  foi-ty  j)atients.  In 
addition  to  this  ])lant  on  the  mission  com])ound  there  is  a branch 
dispensary  in  the  city  across  the  river.  A new  bnilding  for  the 
accommodation  of  juivate  i)atients,  either  foreigners  or  officials, 
has  I'ecently  been  erect(‘d  on  the  hos])ital  compound  tlu'ough  tin* 
generosity  of  lhr(H*  native  gentlemen  who  had  tlius  testified  fheir 
apju'eciat ion  of  Dr.  (’I'ooks’  .services.  In  conducting  his  work 
Dr.  (’rooks  employs  three  (»r  four  native  hel])ers,  who  after 
years  of  ti-aining  in  the  hos])ital  and  dis])ensai'v  have  become 
caj)able  of  rendei-ing  very  satisfactoi-y  a.ssistance.  Everything 
about  the  ho.sj)ital  and  disj)ensary  gives  tlie  imi)ression  of  caj)- 
able  and  efficient  management.  The  liosj)ital  service  is  active, 
most  of  the  cases  being  surgical.  On  the  day  of  our  visit  a man 
suffering  from  three  gunshot  wounds  in  the  chest  was  brought 
into  the  lios])ital  from  a town  some  twenty  miles  oi-  more  uj) 
the  rivei-.  the  hosj)ital  offering  him  tlu‘  only  cliance  of  obtaining 
the  care  he  .so  much  needed.  He  was  accompanied  by  no  less 
than  five  friends  who,  on  being  :issured  that  the  patiejit  would 
l)e  received  and  cari'd  for,  remained  with  him.  The  j)resence  of 
.so  many  unskilled  and  :in.\ious  attemlants  is  of  course  anything 
but  an  aid  to  efficient  lios}>ital  work,  l)ut  on  the  other  hand  of- 
fers such  an  oi)i)ortunity  of  getting  actpiainfed  with  them  and 
exerting  n])on  them  the  inlluence  tliat  he  desires  to  have  that 
the  mi.ssion  pliy.sician  receives  tliem  without  comj)laint. 

The  magnitude  of  the  dispensary  service  in  this  station  im- 
l»re.ssed  us  very  strongly.  As  has  already  been  stated,  a disj)ens- 

169 


ary  in  Siam  means  simply'  a place  for  the  sale  and  distribution 
of  medicines,  medical  supplies  and  accessories  of  various  kinds, 
even  toilet  articles,  in  short  a drug  store.  To  meet  the  refjiiire- 
ments  of  his  two  dispensaries  Dr.  Crooks  is  obliged  to  keep  on 
hand  supplies  of  medicines  to  the  value  of  several  thousand 
dollars.  The  total  yearly  sales  of  the  dispensaries  were  said 
to  amount  to  something  like  ten  to  twelve  thousand  ticals.  To 
rightly  conduct  a business  of  this  magnitude,  merely  as  an  ad- 
junct of  his  medical  work,  constitutes  no  small  tax  upon  the 
time  and  energy'  of  the  physician.  He  must  not  only  keep  closely 
informed  of  the  sales  in  this  department  in  order  to  fore.see  its 
needs  and  to  place  his  orders  for  new  supplies,  orders  which 
mu.st  go  to  distant  supply  houses  and  regularly  re<|uire  months 
for  their  filling,  but  in  many  instances  he  must  personally  over- 
see the  compounding  of  prescriptions,  some  of  them  dating  back 
years  and  calling  for  v'ery  unusual  remedies  sent  him  by  for- 
eigners resident  in  Larnpang  or  the  surrounding  district.  Need- 
less to  say  accurate  accounts  must  also  be  kept  to  insure  the 
profits  from  this  department  to  which  the  missionary  looks  for 
much  needed  support  for  the  hospital  work.  This  unexpectefl 
development  of  the  commercial  side  of  the  dispensary  work  is 
one  of  the  features  of  our  mission  enteiTirise  in  Siam  which  will, 
as  time  goes  on.  doubtless  require  careful  consideration  and 
liossibly  readjustment.  There  is  no  doubt  that,  as  matters  stand 
in  Siam,  the  sale  and  distribution  of  reliable  medicines  consti- 
tute a real  public  service.  Hntil  the  missionary  opened  his  dis- 
jiensaiw  our  medicines  were  practically  unknown  and  not  to  be 
liad  in  all  the  land.  No  one  can  accurately  compute  the  amount 
of  good  that  has  been  done  the  Siamese  people  by  the  oj)ening  of 
dispensaries  in  all  the  mission  stations.  The  introduction  of 
(juinine  alone  into  a land  where  malaria  in  malignant  form  is 
rife  and  where  almost  every  inhabitant  at  one  time  or  another 
of  his  life  and  aften  repeatedly  suffers  from  malarial  fever  has 
undoubtedly  saved  many  thousands  of  lives.  Fp  to  the  present 
time  the  Siamese  appear  to  have  made  no  effort  to  meet  the  re- 
quirements of  their  people  along  these  lines.  Tn  Bangkok  it- 
self one  sees  numerous  dispensaries  or  drug  stores,  but  outside 
that  city,  with  the  exce]>tion  of  a single  store  conducted  by  a 
riiinaman  in  Pitsanuloke.  we  saw  no  others.  True,  almost  every 
small  shop  in  the  interior  towns  exposes  for  sale  a few  bottles 
of  quinine,  often  of  doubtful  origin,  and  uncertain  age.  but  the 
mission  dispensary  remains  practically  the  only  source  of  re- 
liable remedies  for  the  great  bulk  of  the  people.  .Tu.st  how  long 
the  missionary  physician  should  continue  his  service  along  these 
lines  no  one  can  at  present  tell.  As  was  stated  in  connection 
with  the  Bangkok  Medical  School  the  graduates  of  that  institu- 
tion are  being  sent  out  as  provincial  and  municipal  physicians 
into  the  various  parts  of  the  country.  Each  of  them  dispenses 
medicines  to  some  extent,  but  so  far  as  coiild  be  learned  there 
is  no  lessening  but  rather  a steady  increase  in  the  trade  of  the 

170 


mission  dispensaries.  This  work  should  doubtless  be  continued 
until  such  time  as  adequate  provision  is  made  for  carrying  it  on 
by  other  agencies,  but  it  would  be  a great  relief  to  the  mission 
physicians  to ' transfer  this  burden  to  other  shoulders  and  to 
devote  their  time  and  energ;v"  to  the  medical  and  surgical  work 
more  properly  belonging  to  them. 

In  this  connection  it  seems  to  me  necessary  to  question  the 
wisdom  of  permitting  an  able  physician  like  Br.  Crooks  to  load 
him.self  up  with  the  manifold  duties  which  he  at  present  per- 
forms. He  is  not  only  the  medical  officer  of  a hospital  of  suffi- 
cient capacity  to  offer  quite  a siifflcient  field  for  the  activities  of 
any  one  man,  but  he  is  also  the  re.sponsible  head  of  a drug  busi- 
ness of  considerable  amount,  the  treasurer  of  the  station,  and  is 
responsible  for  the  evangelistic  work  in  both  hospital  and  dis- 
pensar\'  and  in  a number  of  out-stations  as  well.  No  one  wlio 
has  not  been  in  actual  touch  with  the  work  of  the  mission  phy- 
sician can  realize  how  incessant  are  the  demands  made  upon 
liiin  by  patients  within  and  without  the  liospital.  Living  as  we 
did  for  several  days  in  I)r.  Crooks’  lionie  the  frequency  of  the 
calls  from  one  source  or  another  was  veiw  forcibly  impressed 
upon  u.s.  From  early  morning  till  darkness  fell  there  was  no 
hour  when  he  was  safe  from  interruption.  The  demands  upon 
his  time  and  attention  seem  so  constant  that  one  wonders  when 
he  finds  either  opportunity  or  inclination  to  devote  himself  to 
fhe  other  enteiqirises  with  which  he  is  charged.  The  role  of  a 
))rophet  is  always  hazardous,  but  it  is  certainly  my  expectation 
that  if  he  continues  for  any  length  of  time  to  perforin  these  mani- 
fold duties  one  of  two  results  will  follow.  Either  he  will  break 
down  and  be  forced  to  give  up  his  occupation  entii^ely  for  a time, 
or  possibly  permanently,  or  he  will  find  himself  falling  so  far 
behind  in  the  effort  jcvers'  jihysician  must  make  to  keej)  in  touch 
with  the  jirogress  of  his  profession  that  he  will  became  discour- 
aged and  will  be  ready  or  even  desirous  of  giving  up  his  pro- 
fe.ssional  work  altogether.  As  T shall  have  reason  to  point  out 
further  on  one  of  the  most  striking  defects  of  the  work  in  our 
mission  hospitals  is  the  scantiness  of  the  laboratory  work  done 
ill  them.  No  other  part  of  the  work  requires  more  time  and 
l»ati(*nce  for  its  ade<]uate  perfonuance  and  the  ready  explanation 
of  the  deficiency  noted  in  this  line  is  simply  that  the  men  in 
charge  of  the  hospitals  have  as  a rule  neither  time  nor  energy 
to  devote  to  it  and  have  no  trained  assistants  upon  whom  they 
can  rely  for  its  pei-fonnanee.  The  mission  physician,  over- 
l)ui-dened  with  many  duties,  simply  gets  along  as  best  he  can 
without  it  and  we  can  hardly  exjiect  him  to  do  better  work  until 
we  release  him  from  .some  of  the  manifold  duties  which  at  pres- 
ent leave  him  no  hour  to  devote  to  it. 

ChietKj  Mui.  The  “farthest  north”  of  our  journey  brought  us 
to  Chieng  Mai,  a city  of  100,000  inhabitants,  the  seat  of  one  of 
our  strongest  missions.  At  the  time  of  our  visit  three  phy.si- 
cians  were  engaged  in  the  work  of  the  station.  Dr.  McKean  de- 

171 


votiiiff  liiniself  partionlarly  to  the  development  of  the  Lej>er 
Asylniu,  Dr.  Mason  in  charj^e  of  the  hospital  and  dispensary, 
and  Dr.  Cort  takin^f  rare  of  the  outside  practice — which  in  a 
city  of  this  size  with  ii  nninher  of  missionaries  and  a large  for- 
eign contingent,  is  in  itself  a considerable  task. 

Dr.  McKean’s  woik  among  the  lejjers  constitutes  one  of  the 
most  remarkable  by  jtroducts  of  our  medical  mission  work  in 
Siam  and  will  long  remain  a memorial  of  a lifetime  of  devote<l 
work  among  the  Siamese.  His  attention  having  been  first  drawn 
to  these  ho]»eless  .sufferers  by  their  constant  pleas  for  help  while 
he  was  in  chai-ge  of  the  hosj)ital.  Dr.  ^fcKeau  some  years  ago 
determined  to  undertake  the  foundation  of  an  a.sylum  for  their 
care.  He  secured  the  interest  of  a Lao  Prince  or  Chow  in  his 
])roject  and  the  gi‘eater  part  of  an  island  lying  in  the  river,  an 
hour’s  journey  from  the  city  by  boat,  was  set  apart  for  the 
purpose.  T^i»on  this  laud  Dr.  McKean  has  succee^led  in  erecting 
a grouj)  of  tasteful  brick  and  stucco  buildings  in  which  at  the 
time  of  our  vi.sit  107  lepers  were  comfortably  housed.  The  gov- 
ernment now  contributes  regularly  a sufficient  sum  to  provide 
for  the  feeding  of  these  patients  and  with  money  secured  from 
various  sources  such  additions  as  means  j»ermit  are  being  made 
to  the  plant  from  time  to  time.  Tt  is  estimated  that  in  the  sin- 
gle province  in  which  Chieng  ^lai  lies  there  are  over  five  thou- 
sand lepers,  so  that  the  number  housed  in  this  asylum,  respect- 
able as  it  is.  constitutes  but  a small  fraction  of  the  number  that 
must  be  cared  for  to  meet  the  total  need  and  to  relieve  the  popu- 
lace of  the  constant  menace  of  contagion  that  lies  in  the  presence 
of  so  large  a body  of  infected  persons  entirely  free  from  super- 
vision or  control.  Tt  is  however  a great  step  in  advance  that 
a beginning  in  the  care  of  these  patients  has  been  made  in  a man- 
ner which  commands  the  attention  and  respect  of  all  who  come 
to  know  of  it.  No  words  can  adequately  picture  the  wretch- 
edness and  suffering  of  the  lepers  under  ordinary'  conditions. 
Outcasts  fiom  their  homes  and  kiiidrefl.  sick  and  hoj>eless.  they 
are  left  to  wander  about  the  country  begging  their  daily  bread 
until  death  comes  to  their  relief.  T’ntil  Dr.  McTCean  began  his 
work  there  was  no  organized  effort  for  their  relief  in  all  Siam. 
That  work  now  constitutes  perhaps  the  most  eloquent  and  effec- 
tive embodiment  of  the  gospel  message  that  our  missions  have 
produced.  Schools  and  hospitals,  the  Siamese  .say,  they  can  un- 
der.staud,  for  in  them  the  missionary  obtains  pupils  and  prose- 
lytes whose  gratitude  and  appreciation  may  later  prove  of  real 
service  to  him  in  the  work  in  which  he  is  engaged,  but  that  any 
man  should  find  it  in  his  heart  to  devote  himself  to  these  hope- 
less and  loathsome  outcasts  from  whom  nothing  is  to  be  expect- 
ed. passes  their  comprehension. 

Our  vi.sit  was  made  the  occasion  for  the  celebration  of  the 
communion  service  in  the  leper  church  which  constitutes  an  im- 
portant part  of  the  in.stitution.  On  that  day  nineteen  lepers 
confessed  their  faith  in  a living  Redeemer  of  men  and  were  bap- 

172 


tizecl  iuto  the  Christian  Chiirdi.  The  entire  audience  consisted 
of  lepers;  even  some  of  Ihe  eldei-s  who  took  part  in  tlie  service 
were  lepers.  None  of  the  visiting  party  will  ever  he  able  to 
forget  that  occasion,  charged  as  it  was  with  the  full  meaning 
of  the  go.sjiel  message  of  healing  not  for  the  bodies  alone  but  for 
the  souls  of  men.  We  shall  all  most  earnestly  hope  and  pray 
that  the  work  .so  anspiciously  begun  may  extend  until  every  leper 
within  the  limits  of  Siam  knows  the  peace  and  joy  that  have 
been  brought  to  the  comparative  few  now  cared  for  in  Dr.  Mc- 
Kean’s institution. 

The  ho.spital  in  Chieng  Mai  has  a capacity  of  between  fifty 
and  .sixty  patients  and  is  giving  eflicient  service  under  Dr. 
Ma.son’s  care.  The  bnildings  and  ecpiipment  have  already  ren- 
dered many  years  of  .service  and  are  both  in  need  of  renewal.  In 
the  ex])ectation  that  Chieng  Mai  is  to  become  an  important  cen- 
ter for  medical  ediication  in  northern  Siam  plans  have  already 
been  drawn  for  the  re-building  of  the  hosj)ital,  and  it  is  to  be 
hoped  that  the  means  may  soon  be  found  for  carrying  them  into 
e.xecution.  In  connection  with  the  hospital  we  were  pleased  to 
find  a clinical  laboratoiy  which  was  in  active  oj)eration  and  ren- 
dering helj)ful  .servii-e  so  far  as  its  e(iui])ment  permitted.  In 
the  work  of  the  laboratory  Dr.  Mason  finds  very  material  lielj) 
fi-om  several  native  a.ssistants  whom  he  him.self  has  trained  in 
the  simpler  laboratory  procedure.  Also  in  times  of  need  in  the 
oj)erative  work  he  calls  to  his  aid  Mrs.  ^lason  who  before  enter- 
ing the  mission  s(M-vic(*  had  the  advantage  of  ten  years’  ti-aining 
in  the  surgical  clinic  of  Dr.  Deaver  of  IMiiladelphia.  AVhat  that 
aid  means  we  had  occasion  to  lealize  wlien  on  the  last  day  of  our 
stay  in  Chieng  Alai  it  was  found  necessary  to  ])erform  a most 
serious  abdominal  ojteration  nj)on  Mr.  (Jillies,  one  of  our  own 
mission  staff.  The  -operation  was  rendered  nece.ssary  by  the 
sudden  ])erforation  of  a gastric  ulcer  from  which  Air.  (jillies 
had  sulfered  for  many  years.  The  necessity  of  the  oj)eration  was 
decid(*d  by  a consultation  of  s(*v(*ral  physicians  between  si.x  and 
seven  o’clock  in  the  ev(*ning.  I'nder  the  prevailing  conditions 
it  .seemed  best  that  the  patient  should  not  be  moved  but  that 
the  o]»ei-ation  should  lx*  perfornuMl  in  his  own  home.  It  was  nine 
o'clock  before  Ihe  operating  lal)h*.  inst niments,  and  other  para- 
])hernalia  could  be  luoughl  from  the  hosjiilal  and  the  oi»eration 
actually  undertaken.  An  abdominal  section  for  such  a i)urpose 
is  a dillicnlt  and  hazardous  ])rocedur(*  under  the  best  conditions. 
Cnder  Ihe  circnnistaiices  prevailing  in  this  case  it  constituted 
an  unusual  test  of  Ihe  skill  and  neive  of  the  operator.  Dr. 
Alason,  who  j)erform(sI  Ihe  ojteration,  had  the  assistance  of  both 
Di-.  AIcKean  and  Dr.  (’oil,  but  it  seemed  to  the  anxious  spec- 
tators that  in  this  emergency  he  profited  even  more  from  the 
etlicient  aid  of  Airs.  Alason  who,  in  this  crisis,  jtroved  herself 
|)osse.ss(Ml  not  only  of  trained  skill  but  of  rare  composure.  The 
results  of  (he  operation  we  could  not  know  at  (he  time  of  our 
d(*]iartni‘(‘  from  Chieng  Alai  the  next  morning,  but  we  all  rejoiced 

173 


greatly  when,  some  weeks  later  in  Manila,  we  learned  that  it 
had  been  entirely  sueeessfnl  and  that  the  ]>atient  was  well  on 
the  way  toward  recovery.  This  experience  brought  home  to  all 
the  members  of  the  visiting  party  the  heavy  responsibility  which 
the  medical  missionary  mn.st  frefpiently  assume  in  the  care  of 
his  colleagues  or  the  members  of  their  families. 

At  the  time  of  our  vi.sit  Dr.  Cort  had  (piite  an  active  practice 
among  the  members  of  the  station.  Although  Chieng  Mai,  by 
reason  of  its  latitude,  its  elevation,  and  general  surroundings 
should  be  one  of  the  most  healthful  of  our  stations  in  Siam,  there 
was  an  unusual  amount  of  illness  among  the  missionary  families. 
Dr.  McKean  was  confined  to  bed  by  an  attack  of  malarial  fever, 
from  which  he  has  been  a fre<pient  .sufferer.  Mr.  Harri.s’s  little 
daughter,  Christina,  was  suffering  from  a fever  at  first  supposed 
to  be  malarial,  but  proving  later  to  be  typhoid.  Mrs.  Park,  who 
had  accompanied  us  from  Prae  to  Chieng  Mai,  was  also  ill  with 
malaria  and  there  were  some  minor  ailments  among  the  mis- 
.sionary  community.  The  practice  in  circles  outside  the  mission- 
ary community  is  also  of  considerable  importance  in  a center 
like  Chieng  Mai.  It  brings  the  missionary  physician  in  touch 
with  and  enables  him  to  render  valuable  service  to  natives  of 
the  official  class  whose  friendship  and  assistance  become  at 
times  of  very  great  importance  to  the  mission  cause.  There  is 
also  in  and  about  Chieng  Mai  a considerable  number  of  foreign- 
ers whose  needs  in  the  medical  way  the  missionary  is  expected 
to  meet  and  whose  payments  for  such  .services  constitute  a very 
valuable  addition  to  the  income  of  the  medical  service. 

The  most  important  topic  in  connection  with  the  medical  work 
of  our  mission  in  Chieng  Mai  is,  however,  the  project  of  the 
establishment  of  a medical  school  in  that  center.  In  this  Dr. 
Cort  has  taken  the  very  deepest  interest  and  at  the  time  of  his 
recent  furlough  he  reports  that  he  succeeded  in  securing  the 
interest  of  a number  of  friends  in  Baltimore,  especially  that  of 
some  of  the  faculty  of  Johu  Hopkins  Cniversity  and  tentative 
contributions  of  considerable  amount  for  this  puritose.  Just 
before  our  departure  Dr.  Cort  submitted  a paper  in  which 
were  voiced  the  opinions  of  the  medical  members  of  the  Chieng 
Mai  staff  with  relation  to  the  need  and  importance  of  the  pro- 
posed institution.  That  paper,  together  with  my  original  report, 
was  unfortunately  lost  in  the  hand  bags  of  which  Mr.  Speers 
and  1 were  relieved  by  some  Chinese  thief  while  on  our  way  to 
Hwaiyuan,  China.  The  purport  of  it  may  be  summarized  in 
three  chief  propositions. 

1.  That  the  medical  work  is  not  merely  an  adjunct  or  a 
pioneer  .seiwice  in  mission  work,  but  an  essential  part  of  the 
Christian  message.  It  embodies  in  substantial  form  and  ex- 
emplifies in  its  spirit  the  teachings  of  our  Lord  and  Saviour.  It 
should  not  only  be  maintained  but  should  be  develoj^ed  to  its 
fullest  efficiency  with  the  object  of  making  as  effective  as  jms- 
sible  our  missionary  service. 


174 


2.  It  is  essential  to  the  conservation  of  whatever  gronnd  we 
have  gained  in  northern  Siam,  by  providing  ChristiaTi  physi- 
cians for  tlie  Christian  coniinnnity.  AVhenever  native  Cliristians 
ont  of  tlie  reacli  of  (lie  missionary  jdiysician  fall  ill  their  faith 
is  in  tlie  greatest  peril  for  the  reason  that  their  only  resource  is 
the  native  pliysicians  who  are  spirit  worshippers  and  the  first 
item  of  whose  practice  is  sacrifice  to  the  spirits.  This  no  Chris- 
tion  can  perform  without  the  utmost  violence  to  his  new  found 
faith.  Thus  it  is  .said  many  who  have  been  weaned  from  their 
old  beliefs,  and  have  professed  their  faith  in  Christ  and  been  for 
some  time  loyal  adherents  of  His  cause  are  led  back  into  the 
darkness  of  .sjiirit  worship. 

3.  If  Christian  physicians  are  ever  to  be  obtained  for  north- 
ern Siam  they  must  be  educated  in  our  own  mission  schools.  It 
is  practically  impossible,  we  are  told,  for  ain’  of  the  native  stu- 
dents (Lao)  to  meet  the  expen.se  of  journeying  to  Bangkok  and 
there  undertaking  their  medical  study.  Furthermore  as  has 
already  been  pointcnl  out,  the  introduction  of  the  practice  of 
Buddhist  prayers  in  government  schools  in  Bangkok  may  render 
it  im])ossible  for  any  student  to  pass  through  that  school  and  re- 
main a Christian. 

For  these  reasons  the  medical  members  of  the  Chieng  Mai 
station  unite  in  urging  upon  us  the  vital  neces.sity  of  proceed- 
ing as  rapidly  as  possible  to  develop  a medical  school  of  our 
own  in  Chieng  Mai.  In  this  judgment  we  are  obliged  to  concur 
although  we  realize  the  burdens  that  this  task  will  impose  upon 
the  mission  and  cannot  at  this  time  s(*e  how  the  means  are  to  be 
obtained  for  the  proper  development  of  such  an  institution.  If 
this  task  is  to  be  undertaken  b}-  the  mission  it  must  be  forcibly 
impre.s.sed  upon  those  in  charge  of  it  that  the  beginnings  should 
be  made  in  the  most  jnodest  manner  possible.  The  success  of 
the  undertaking  will  not  be  determined  by  the  size  of  the  build- 
ing, the  elaborateness  of  the  equipment,  or  the  number  of  gradu- 
ate students  turned  out,  but  by  tlie  quality  of  the  individuals, 
perhaps  few  in  number,  thoroughly  trained  not  only  in  theii- 
profession  but  in  Christian  character,  who  are  sent  out  to  rei>re- 
sent  it.  If  the  hospital  plant  were  re-built  and  somewhat  en- 
largeil  it  should  be  possible  to  undertake  the  training  of  small 
classes,  .say  five  or  six  men  to  a class,  with  comparatively  small 
additional  expense.  The  question  of  the  faculty  will  at  the  out- 
set be  of  greater  imjiortance  than  that  of  buildings.  At  the  mo- 
ment there  are  only  the  three  men  already  named  as  the  mem- 
bers of  our  Chieng  Mai  stall  available  for  this  service.  They 
have  betm  iiromi.sed  the  assistance  and  co-operation  of  the  pro- 
vincial jdiysician.  Dr.  Kerr,  an  English  practitioner  of  high 
professional  (pialitications.  These  men  may  be  able  to  make  a 
beginning  in  the  undertaking  but  they  would  very  .shortly  re- 
(piire  additions  to  their  numb<*r.  In  view  of  the  shortage  of 
men  in  our  medical  service  in  Siam  already  i)ointed  out,  the  need 
of  still  more  men  in  Chieng  Mai  will  be  a matter  of  prime  im- 
portance demanding  the  earnest  attention  of  the  Board. 

175 


Kan  and  Chicng  Rai.  The  time  limits  of  our  sojourn  in  Siam 
•lid  not  j»ei*mit  our  visitinj^  these  two  stations,  so  far  removal 
from  the  railway.  Our  only  information  regardirijr  them  there- 
fore was  obtained  in  our  conversations  with  representatives  of 
these  stations  whom  we  met  at  J'rae  ami  t'hien*?  Mai  and  was 
so  limited  that  it  does  not  seem  essential  to  our  purpose  to  re- 
produce it  at  this  time. 

GENERAL  OBSERVATIONS 

1.  So  far  as  buildiiif's  are  concerned  the  hosjiitals  of  our 
Siam  missions  are  for  the  most  part  adeipiate  for  present  pur- 
poses. The  necessity  of  rebuilding  the  Chieng  Mai  institution 
has  already  been  dealt  with.  In  Tap  Teang  it  was  evident  that 
the  hospital  there  was  in  need  of  a new  operating  room  and  we 
have  been  greatly  pleased  by  the  news  which  reached  us  at 
Manila,  where  we  met  Dr.  Bulkley  on  his  way  back  to  the  sta- 
tion, that  the  means  to  supply  this  need  had  been  supplied  by 
a gift  of  3,000  ticals  from  the  King  of  Siam  upon  the  occasion 
of  his  recent  visit  to  the  southern  provinces. 

2.  There  is  a very  definite  need  of  more  medical  men  in  Siam 
to  properly  man  the  institutions  we  already  have  and  to  firovide 
an  adequate  .start'  for  the  projected  school  in  Chieng  Mai.  Fur- 
thermore, there  is  need  not  only  of  more  men  but  of  men  of  the 
highest  (juality  both  in  Christian  character  and  in  professional 
attainments.  Of  all  the  fields  visited  none  presents  .so  great  a 
need  and  makes  such  heavy  demands  upon  the  men  who  are  sent 
to  meet  its  needs.  If  the  work  in  southern  Siam  particularly 
is  to  gain  the  strength  and  momentum  that  we  all  desire  it  to 
have  it  must  be  by  putting  into  that  field  some  of  the  ablest 
and  most  consecrated  men  that  the  Board  can  obtain. 

3.  In  a letter  sent  back  to  the  Siam  missions  in  conjunction 
with  Mr.  Speer,  two  directions  in  which  it  seemed  we  should 
undertake  at  once  to  materially  improve  the  quality  of  our  medi- 
cal mission  work  were  pointed  out. 

(a)  The  laboratory  work  in  every  hospital  in  the  field  should 
be  considerably  increased  and  improved.  One  measure  which 
might  help  in  this  direction  was  suggested  in  connection  with 
Dr.  Crooks.  So  far  as  is  consistent  with  the  most  thorough 
evangelistic  service — a service  the  importance  of  which  is,  I 
think,  realized — the  medical  men  should  be  kept  as  free  as  pos- 
sible from  other  duties,  with  the  understanding  that  it  is  desired 
that  the  work  in  the  hospitals  should  occupy  their  chief  atten- 
tion and  that  they  should  make  every  effort  to  improve  the  qual- 
ity of  the  work  done  and  to  bring  it  as  nearly  as  possible  up  to 
i-easonable  standards  of  scientific  attainment. 

(b)  One  of  the  greatest  needs  of  Siam  from  the  viewpoint  of 
the  health  and  physical  welfare  of  its  people  is  a knowledge  of 
the  elementary  facts  of  hygiene.  There  is  no  place  where  these 
facts  could  more  fittingly  be  brought  to  their  attention  or  taught 

176 


them  than  in  a Christian  hospital.  To  this  end  there  should  be 
certain  definite  chanp:es  in  the  internal  administration  of  the 
hospitals  made  just  as  soon  as  circumstances  will  permit.  So 
lon^  as  the  native  patient  is  pennitted  to  come  into  the  hospital 
and  ^ive  very  much  as  he  does  at  home  he  can  hardly  be  expect- 
ed to  learn  much  along  these  lines  by  the  exj)erience.  Just  how 
rapidly  and  in  what  manner  changes  can  be  introduced  into  the 
hospitals  must  evidently  be  left  to  the  judgment  of  the  physi- 
cians in  charge,  but  the  need  of  improvement  should  be  impress- 
ed upon  our  men  for  reasons  which  are  suggested  in  this  report, 
and  whatever  help  is  required  and  lies  within  the  power  of  the 
Board  should  be  given  them. 

In  this  connection  may  be  mentioned  an  undertaking  of  some 
importance  in  connection  with  Dr.  Shellman’s  work  at  Pitsanu- 
loke.  One  of  the  first  steps  in  improving  the  internal  condi- 
tions of  our  hospitals  would  be  to  make  adequate  pi’ovision  for 
the  keeping  and  j>reparation  of  all  food  outside  the  wards.  In 
connection  with  his  new  hospital  Dr.  Shellman  is  building  an 
addition,  in  which  each  i)atient  will  have  a locked  compartment 
for  the  keeping  of  food  and  a i)lace  for  cooking  it.  I am  aware 
that  experiments  along  this  line  in  .some  other  places  have  failed 
but  let  us  hope  that  this  latest  one  will  succeed  and  that  its 
succe.ss  will  encourage  others  to  undertake  a like  procedure. 

For  the  same  jnii'po.se  it  seems  to  me  of  definite  importance 
to  introduce  much  more  generally  than  has  yet  been  done  the 
use  of  beds  in  our  ho.spitals.  It  may  seem  a matter  of  small 
importance  whether  the  patient  stretches  his  simple  strip  of 
matting  on  the  floor  or  on  a rai.sed  i)latforni  or  bed  a foot  or  two 
above  it,  but  I am  convinced  that  that  change  would  have  verj- 
decided  influence  in  i)romoting  distinctions  and  teaching  certain 
les.sons  of  cleanliness  which  are  (piite  worth  while.  Incidentally 
I am  the  more  inclined  to  urge  the  general  ado])tion  of  beds  be- 
cau.se  1 believe  that  their  presence  would  tend  indirectly  to  im- 
jirove  the  (piality  of  the  service  rendered  by  the  physician  or 
surgeon  in  the  wards.  Bepeated.  careful  pliysical  examination 
is  essential  to  the  adeipiate  care  of  any  seri(Hisly  sick  jiafient. 
It  surely  nspiires  no  argument  to  see  that  with  the  ])atients 
lying  simj)ly  uj)on  matting  on  the  floor  such  examinations  are 
rendered  diflicult,  if  not  ini])ossible,  and  that  they  will  be  just 
so  much  the  more  fnspient  and  thorough  as  they  are  made  easier 
by  bringing  the  i)atient  on  to  a satisfactory  bed. 

-f.  77/c  Health  of  M isHionariex.  Only  incidental  reference  to 

this  imj»ortant  subject  has  thus  far  been  made  in  this  report, 
but  the  subject  was  constantly  in  our  minds  and  was  fre(piently 
brought  uj)  in  our  conversations  with  the  men  on  the  field.  En- 
deavor to  obtain  as  much  iiiformafion  as  j)os.sible  bearing  on  the 
(piestions  of  the  j)hysical  qualifications  of  the  missionarie.s,  the 
character  and  scope  of  the  ])hysical  examination,  the  influence 
of  climatic  and  othei-  local  conditions,  i)eriods  of  .service,  fre- 
(piency  and  length  of  the  term  of  furlough,  etc.  Much  of  this 

177 


information  it  is  of  ronrse  imj)ossil)le  to  satisfactorily  formu- 
late or  present  in  this  report.  There  are.  however,  in  this  con- 
nection, some  facts  whicli  it  seems  may  ]»i-operly  be  jiresented  to 
the  Board. 

(a)  In  connection  with  the  yearly  vacations  which  we  be- 
lieve to  be  essential  for  the  mi.ssionaries  (piite  as  much  as  for 
the  professional  man  at  home,  the  problem  of  where  to  spend 
the  comparatively  short  periods  allowe<l  for  this  pui*fjose  is  often 
a difficult  one  for  the  man  or  family  livinj;  on  the  limite<l  salary 
of  a missionary.  Yet  in  both  the  northern  and  .southenj  Siam 
missions  we  found  that  there  were  possibilities  of  providiii}' 
satisfactory  local  resorts  that  should  be  inn)roved.  In  southern 
Siam  the  mission  had  until  recently  at  Koh  Lok  a .sati.sfacton- 
seaside  i-esort  accessible  without  great  difficulty  from  any  of  our 
missions  in  that  field.  TTifortunately  this  .site  was  so  desirable 
that  the  King  has  taken  it  over  for  his  own  use.  But  he  has 
dealt  very  generously  with  the  mission  in  giving  them  another 
.somewhat  less  acce.ssible  place  on  the  seashore  and  also  paying 
them  considerably  more  than  the  original  cost  of  the  Koh  Lok 
property.  The  money  thus  received  has  Iteen  apportioned  among 
the  several  stations  in  the  mission  for  the  pui-po.se  of  enabling 
them  to  develop  such  sites  as  they  should  .select  or  agree  ujjon 
for  vacation  resorts.  One  of  these  will  doubtless  be  the  seaside 
property  given  as  a sustitute  for  Koh  Lok.  Dr.  Bulkley  mentions 
that  there  is  an  island  off  the  western  coast  to  which  some  of 
the  missionaries  from  Taj)  Teang  have  occasionally  gone  and 
that  there  is  also  a government  rest  house  in  the  hills  between 
Tap  Teang  and  Nakon  Sritamarat  which  they  have  found  ac- 
cessible and  in  some  ways  satisfactory.  Just  which  sites  shall 
be  developed  and  in  what  manner  must  naturally  be  left  to  the 
missions  concerned.  At  this  time  I wish  merely  to  point  out 
that  the  development  of  some  such  local  resorts  may  be  of  very 
material  help  to  the  mis.'iionary  community  in  providing  the  rest 
and  change  essential  t<»  their  enjoyment  of  their  vacation. 

In  northern  Siam  the  mountains  about  Chieng  Mai  and  I un- 
derstand in  other  places,  otter  ]»leasant  sites  for  vacation  camps. 
Some  of  the  families  in  Chieng  Mai  have  had  .such  a camp  in  the 
hills  overlooking  the  city  and  have  greatly  enjoyed  their  oppor- 
tunities to  retire  there  for  a few  weeks  in  the  hottest  part  of 
the  year.  We  were  told  that  as  .soon  as  the  railroad  is  completed 
through  the  mountains  beyond  Lampang  (a  tunnel  has  already 
l>een  cut  through  the  mountains')  still  more  satisfactory  sites 
will  be  accessible  to  them.  We  were  told  that  the  change  in 
temperature  and  atmosphere  that  could  be  had  in  some  of  these 
mountain  sites  within  a few  hours  of  the  city  was  sufficient  to 
make  them  very  desirable  retreats.  If  tlie  development  of  such 
sites  demands  expenditures  beyond  the  ability  of  the  individual 
missionary  or  mis.sionary  groups,  and  the  aid  of  the  Board  should 
be  askefl  in  developing  a site  which  would  provide  accommoda- 
tions open  or  available  for  all  the  members  of  a station,  it  would 

178 


seem  sound  policy  tliat  such  aid  sliould  be  given.  The  more 
I study  tlie  problem  of  the  health  of  missionaries  in  the  field 
and  seek  the  explanation  of  the  nervous  breakdowns  which  are 
all  too  frequent  among  our  woi'kers,  the  greater  the  importance 
which  I attach  to  the  psychology  of  the  individual.  It  is  for 
this  reason  that  I bring  fomvard  these  rather  nebulous  consid- 
erations regarding  vacation  resorts  or  retreats  believing  as  I 
do  that  the  yearly  vacation  with  its  attendant  change  both  as 
to  persons  and  things  is  of  very  considerable  importance  to  the 
mental  health  of  the  missionary.  Help  lent  in  tliis  direction 
may  tlieiefore  be  of  very  definite  aid  in  ]>reventing  some  of  tlie 
breakdowns  which  we  all  so  much  regret. 

(bj  For  like  rea.sons  I am  coming  to  look  upon  the  question 
of  the  length  of  term  of  service  and  the  frequency  and  diaration 
of  the  i)eriod  of  furlough  as  of  importance  rather  from  the 
mental  than  the  physical  viewpoint.  The  missionary  as  a rule 
needs  his  furlough  not  so  much  for  bodily  rest  or  recuperation 
as  he  needs  it  for  the  sake  of  the  mental  change  and  in  some 
instances  for  education  or  study.  Whenever  the  question  of 
change  in  these  matters  is  brought  up  from  any  field  it  seems 
to  me  that  these  considerations  should  be  given  greater  weight 
than  perhajis  has  hei'etofore  been  accorded  them.  There  are 
of  cour.se  many  instances  in  which  climate  and  j)hysical  condi- 
tions play  the  determining  role  in  deciding  periods  of  service  and 
furlough,  but  1 am  (juite  .satisfied  that  ajjart  from  the.se  consid- 
erations the  menial  health  or  nervous  (siuilibrium  of  our  mis- 
sionaries demands  a regular  furlough  si)ent  in  the  manner  that 
will  aid  him  most  in  that  direction.  Tlie  jiroblem  of  just  what 
that  means  is  an  individual  one  that  should  be  worked  out  with 
each  missionary  ujion  his  or  her  terms.  Some  may  tind  all  the 
change  they  need  in  simply  being  at  home  or  in  making  such 
addresses  or  tours  as  the  Board  may  desire.  Others  will  lUK'd 
complete  mental  rest.  Still  others  may  be  benetited  by  study 
along  definite  lines.  The  exact  line  of  the  employment  of  the 
furlough  period  should  be  worked  out  for  each  individual  after 
the  physical  examination  which  is  now  reipiiri'd  and  the  repoi-t 
of  the  examining  jihysician  to  the  Board. 

Ill  connection  with  this  ipiestion  of  the  use  of  vacations  I 
would  earnestly  recoininenil  that  jiliysicians  serving  in  the  troji- 
ics  when  their  condition  p(*rmits  be  encouraged  to  undertake  a 
course  of  study  of  tropical  disea.ses  in  some  of  the  sjiecial  schools 
establisluHl  for  that  inirpose,  if  they  have  not  already  had  such 
training  as  jiart  of  their  preparation. 

NOTK  O.N  SEl’TIC  T.VNKS 

Both  at  Nakon  Ilosjiital  and  Bangkok  (diristian  (’ollege  wi* 
found  that  dilliciilty  had  Ihhui  encoiinteriMl  in  the  disposal  of 
sewage.  Sewers  are  practically  unknown  in  Siam.  In  Bangkok 
the  canals  which  intersect  the  city  serve  the  jmrjtose  of  sewers. 
As  the  tidal  rise  is  siillicieiit  to  fill  and  einjity  these  channels 

179 


Iliev  loccMvo  a certain  ainoiiiil  of  cleansinjj  from  its  rise  and  fall. 
Tlie  ( 'll  l ist  iaii  t'olle}*e  is  nit  off  from  a nearliy  canal  by  an  in- 
terveniiiff  jii’operty,  lield  at  an  e.xorbitani  value.  In  Nakon  there 
is  no  m^ai’liy  stream  into  wliicli  s(*\vaj>(*  may  be  discliai'fied.  t’ej'- 
tain  observations  made*  at  llo-Ilo  b*(l  ns  to  believe*  that  sejitic 
tanks  would  meet  tin*  ii(*(*ds  of  these  institutions  for  the  present 
at  least.  The  sejitic  tank  as  illiisti-ated  at  the  I'nion  Hospital 
and  one  of  the  jidvernment  hij^h  schools  in  Ilo-Ilo.  is  nothing  more 
than  a water-tight  concrete  Ikix.  Those  we  saw  were  perhaps 
15  feet  sepiare,  with  a dejith  of  10  feet.  The  size  would  naturally 
vary  with  the  amount  of  sewage  to  be  cared  for.  The  sewage  is 
conducted  into  such  a tank  and  then  allowed  to  undergo  evap- 
oration and  fermentation.  The  continued  high  temperature  of 
the  tropics  favors  both  processes.  Water  evajiorates  rapidly 
and  solid  matter  undergoes  rapid  bacterial  decomposition  and 
solution.  The  most  surjirising  featui-e  of  the  ]irocess  is  that 
a huge  tank  of  such  disintegrating  material  gives  off  no  offensive 
odors.  In  part  at  least  the  exjilanation  lies  in  the  fact  that  the 
trojiic  diet  contains  so  small  a proportion  of  meat  that  there  is 
comjiaratively  little  nitrogen  to  be  disjio.sed  of  and  the  gas  re- 
sulting f]-om  decomjiosition  is  largely  CO--.  The  fact  remains 
that  the  .septic  tanks  we  .saw  in  ojieration  certainly  were  not 
offensive.  At  the  Hnion  Hosjiital  Dr.  Hall  informed  us  that  the 
house  sewage  of  the  hosjdtal  had  been  dispo.sed  of  iu  one  tank 
of  the  size  mentioned  for  a number  of  years.  Once  yearly  he 
had  the  solid  deposit  in  the  bottom  removed.  Otherwise  noth- 
ing was  required.  He  thought  it  jirobable  that  the  auti.septics 
discharged  in  the  ho.spital  wa.ste  interfered  to  some  extent  with 
the  bacterial  action  iu  the  tank,  checked  the  breaking  up  of  solid 
materials  and  increased  the  amount  of  sediment.  Originally 
the  tank  had  been  built  iu  two  compartments,  one  of  which  was 
to  be  a settling  chamber,  the  other  to  contain  liquid  only,  this 
to  be  automatically'  syjdioned  from  the  settling  chamber.  This 
])laii  had  not  worked  satisfactorily  and  had  been  abandoned,  the 
tank  being  operated  now  merely  as  a simjile  reservoir  iu  which 
heat  and  bacteria  disjiosed  of  the  contents. 

At  the  Oovernment  High  t^chool  dormitory,  in  charge  of  Miss 
Lucas,  the  entire  sewage  of  a dormitory  in  which  about  48  girls 
were  accommodate^l,  was  discharged  into  a double  septic  tank 
situated  just  outside  the  kitchen  door.  We  wei*e  assured  that 
although  the  tank  had  been  iu  operation  four  or  five  years,  it  had 
required  no  treatment  and  that  no  unpleasant  odors  had  been  in 
evidence.  Neither  of  these  tanks  re<iuiri*<l  jirovision  for  overflow — 
only  the  waste  from  toilets  and  sinks  was  conducted  into  them. 
Itainwater  was  otherwise  disposed  of. 

It  would  seem  that  the  same  .system  would  be  useful  in  Siam 
as  the  climatic  conditions  are  ])ractically  the  same.  It  has  the 
great  advantages  of  the  utmost  simplicity  and  low  cost.  Dr. 
Hall  assured  us  that  the  cost  of  the  tank  at  the  Tniou  Hospital 
had  been  only  a few  hundred  dollars.  Since  our  return  a .search 

ISO 


of  a number  of  books  at  the  Academy  of  Medicine,  while  giving 
mucb  information  as  to  septic  tanks  of  more  elaborate  construc- 
tion has  not  shown  anything  quite  so  simple  as  these  in  use  in 
Iloilo.  It  would  appear  highly  desirable  to  obtain  detailed 
information  from  Dr.  Hall  and,  if  possible,  from  the  architect 
or  builder  of  the  government  dormitory  and  to  jDut  this  before 
Dr.  VanMetre  and  the  autliorilies  of  the  Bangkok  Christian 
College  for  their  adaptation  to  their  needs. 


181 


10.  PROPEKTY,  TKP:ASUHY  AND  BUSINESS  QUESTIONS 

BY  DWIGHT  II.  DAY 

Oil  April  T),  lOI."),  the  Board  coiiinii.^jsioiied  me  as  a member  of 
tlie  Deputation  of  1915  to  visit  certain  of  the  missions  in  Asia 
and  particularly,  “to  confer  with  the.se  missions  as  to  questions 
which  may  arise  for  discussion  and  especially  to  make  a thor- 
ough study  of  the  property  and  financial  questions,  including 
the  China  Eiscal  Agency  and  the  Trea.surerships  of  the  various 
niis.sions,  and  the  status  of  titles  to  the  Board’s  property.” 

PERSONNEL  AND  .TOURNEY 

The  North  and  South  Siam  Missions  were  the  first  objective, 
hut  it  was  found  impracticable  for  the  party  all  to  take  the  .same 
route  eastward,  via  London  and  Suez.  Four  of  the  original  com- 
pany, Mr.  Speer,  Dr.  and  Mrs.  David  Bovaird  and  Mr.  T.  Guthrie 
Speers,  sailed  westward  from  San  Francisco  on  April  17th. 
Being  already  in  London,  I sailed  from  that  port  by  P.  & O.  S.  S. 
“Medina”  on  May  1st  for  Colombo,  Ceylon.  Second  class  ac- 
commodations to  Colombo  on  this  line  proved  to  be  entirely  sat- 
isfactory. In  exactly  twenty-one  days  we  were  in  that  tropical 
city,  which  it  was  possible  to  see  thoroughly,  and  some  of  the 
surrounding  country  as  well,  but  the  brief  stop  did  not  permit 
a visit  to  the  mi.ssion  work  of  the  Church  Missionary  Society  at 
Kandy,  four  or  five  hours  distanf  by  rail,  where  a thriving  mis- 
sion college  is  conducted  by  the  Rev.  Alexander  Fraser,  known 
to  many  of  the  Board.  From  Colombo  the  journey  was  con- 
tinued by  S.  S.  “Malta”  to  the  port  city  of  Penang.  Straits  Set- 
tlements. where  anchor  was  cast  on  the  afteimoon  of  May  27th, 
the  eight  thousand  miles  from  London  having  been  covered  with- 
out unusual  incident.  A welcome  to  this  oriental  city  was  not 
wanting,  for  the  veteran  missionary  to  Siam,  Rev.  Eugene  P. 
Dunlap,  had  come  down  from  his  station  at  Tap  Teang  and  was 
soon  seen  making  his  way  from  the  tender  up  the  accommodation 
ladder  to  the  deck  where  he  presented  the  kindliest  greetings 
from  himself  and  l\Irs.  Dunlap  and  he  and  the  writer  had  the  joy 
very  soon  of  welcoming  the  other  members  of  the  Deputation,  on 
the  S.  S.  “Nubia,”  from  Hong  Kong,  which  came  to  anchor  three 
hundred  yards  from  the  “Malta.”  To  have  sailed  around  oppo- 
site sides  of  the  world  as  fast  as  boat  connections  would  permit 
and  arrive  at  our  point  of  meeting  within  an  hour  of  each  other 
seemed  more  than  coincidence  aud  an  augury  of  future  provi- 
dence which  accompanied  us  all  the  way. 

While  waiting  for  a coast  steamer  going  north,  we  spent  two 
very  profitable  days  in  Penang  conferring  with  the  members  of 
the  American  Methodist  Mission  and  the  one  representative  of 
the  English  Baptist  Mission  located  there,  aud  inspecting  their 

182 


work.  The  large  Anglo-Chinese  Boys’  and  Girls’  Schools  con- 
ducted by  the  Methodists  were  inspiring  to  see  and  their  scholar- 
ship was  attested  by  the  record  of  three  boys,  two  Chinese  and 
one  Sikli,  who  had  recently  won  first,  second  and  third  honors 
in  the  Cambridge  examinations  and  who  were  brought  forward 
and  introduced  to  our  party.  When  visiting  some  of  the  class 
rooms  we  met  three  Dyak  boy.s,  from  Borneo,  whose  parents  or 
grandparents,  fifty  years  ago,  were  cannibals. 

Taking  the  small  steamer  northward  along  the  coast  to  the 
River  Trang  and  landing  at  the  port  by  that  name,  we  repaired 
immediately  to  the  Chinese  Church  where  a congregation  of 
twenty  or  thirty  soon  gathered  for  a service  in  which  we  ]>ar- 
ticipated.  Though  the  dirty  waters  of  the  river  ran  under- 
neath the  .small  wooden  structure  and  its  walls  shut  out  neither 
rain  nor  sun,  it  .seemed  a haven  of  refuge  and  a friendly  place 
in  the  midst  of  the  heathen  town. 

By  the  courtesy  of  Superintendent  Kniglit  of  the  Government- 
owned  Railroad  a special  train  was  provided  to  take  ns  from 
Trang  to  Taj)  Teang,  where  we  arrived  after  an  hour’s  ride  at 
one  o’clock  in  the  afternoon,  the  first  station  of  the  Siam  mis- 
sions for  ns  to  visit. 

All  f)f  the  stations  of  tlie  sontliern  mission  were  visited,  and 
all  but  two  of  the  noi-therii.  Nan  and  Chieng  Rai,  which  could 
not  be  reached  within  the  allotted  time  owing  to  their  isolated 
location,  but  we  had  the  great  satisfaction  of  conferring  with 
i-ej)res<mtatives  from  these  j)laces.  Dr.  I’eojiles  and  Dr.  Taylor, 
who  made  the  long,  hard  five-days’  journey  from  Nan  to  Pi-ae, 
and  with  Mr.  Beebe  who  came  over  a rough  trail  by  motorcycle 
from  Chieng  Rai  eleven  days  away. 


The  comj)lete  itinerary  in  Siam  was  as  follows: 

.May  .‘iOth-.TuiiP  2nd 'rap  'I'eang  

Itaili'oad  


V2 


days 


.tiino  .'{rd-Otli  

3V2 

<• 

Until  tho  alxive  vi 

sits  were  prolonged  by  the  wait  necessitated  bv 

the 

boa  t 

scdiediile  up  the  east 

coast  of  Siam. 

June  7th  

1 

day 

Sth-IOth  

S.  .S.  “.Vsdang,"  Nakon  to  Bangkok.... 

:5 

days 

" nth  

1 

day 

“ t2th  

1 

“ ntth  

1 

“ Hth  

Bail  and  Motor  bus  Pitsauuloke  to 

I’rae  

1 

“ 

“ 1 oth-lGth  . . . . 

In  I’rae  

*> 

flays 

“ 17th  

I’ui  (Railhead)  

1 

day 

“ JSth-lOth  . . . . 

train,  iionies  and  carriers 

D/2 

days 

'•  l«th-21st  

2V2 

“ 22nd-24th  . . . 

train,  jionies  and  carriers 

2V2 

“ 24th  

V2 

day 

" 2.5th  

(•hurdles,  to  Chieng  Mai 

1 

“ 2(;th-.t0tli  

o 

days 

183 

July  Ist-.'Jrd  Pack  train,  pony  and  carriers.  Cliieng 

Mai  to  Lakon  Lampung' 

“ od-4tl)  In  Lakon  Lampang  

‘‘  5th-()th  I’ack  train  and  Rail  Lakon  I..anipang 

to  Pitsaniiloke  

“ 7th  Rail — Pitsanuloke  to  Rangkok 

Sth  In  Rangkok  

IH'i  To  Petchaburi — Rail  

Oth-lOth  In  Petchaburi  

10th  To  Rangkok — Rail  

“ lltb-lGth  In  Rangkok  


1%  •• 


1 day 
1 

% “ 

1 

% “ 

G days 


In  the  Siam  District  47%  days 

Spent  in  Mis.sion  Stations  2hi%  “ 

Spent  in  ti-avel  10  “ 


The  riiilroads  of  Siam  are,  .‘iave  one.  j;ovenimeiit  owned  and  op- 
erated. tlio.se  in  the  .south  havin<>:  betni  bnilt  by  British  contractors, 
those  in  the  north  by  German.  It  was  the  opinion  of  the  British 
Sni»erintendent  of  Construction  that  the  southern  lines  were 
built  too  well  for  the  amount  of  traffic  and  that  lighter  con- 
struction and  consequent  les.ser  cost  would  have  .sufficed.  In 
the  north,  while  the  intial  construction  has  for  the  most  part 
been  well  done,  it  shows  the  faults  of  pioneer  work  in  the  grad- 
ing subject  to  washouts  and  ovei-flow  waters,  which  will  entail 
enormous  replacements  and  maintenance  costs.  The  line  in  the 
south  extends  from  Bangkok  to  Koh  Lok  on  the  east  coast  and 
in  the  north  to  Me  Chang,  only  a day’s  march  south  of  Lakon 
Lampang,  and  it  is  ju-edicted  that  within  a year  it  will  be  com- 
])leted  northward  to  Chieng  ^lai  six  hnndred  miles  from  Bang- 
kok. This  will  have  a very  wide-reaching  effect  upon  the  mis- 
sion stations  of  the  north,  and  eventually  upon  the  relations 
between  the  North  and  South  Siam  Missions.  The  ships  we  used, 
while  small  (ranging  from  400  tons  to  SOO  tonsi  were  for  the 
most  ])art  comfortable  and  had  many  conveniences  and  supplied 
good  food.  Traveling  by  jionv  train  and  carriers  had  the  ad- 
vantages and  delights  of  open-air  camping  though  the  slow  work 
of  covering  the  miles  step  by  step  over  both  rough  and  smooth 
ground,  under  the  tropical  sun,  was  sometimes  oppressive. 


HEALTH 

The  traveling  party  enjoyed  good  health  during  the  entire  stay 
in  the  country,  the  hot  weather  and  out-of-door  life  apparently 
having  the  etf'ect  of  stimulating  apjietites.  Indeed  the  mission- 
aries testified  to  the  fact  that  ])eople  seem  to  require  more  food 
in  the  tropics  than  at  home  in  our  temperate  zone.  Whether 
this  is  due  to  the  more  rapid  destruction  of  bodily  tissue,  or  to 
some  lack  of  nutritive  value  in  the  canned  vegetables,  or  to  some 
other  cause  has  not  been  stated  by  our  physicians.  All  the  party 
were  careful  to  take  large  and  regular  doses  of  quinine  on  going 
to  the  northern  stations  where  malaria  has  been  more  prevalent 
and  virulent.  The  missionaries  of  the  country  have  not  been  so 
fortunate  in  regard  to  health  in  recent  months  and  we  found 
much  sickness  and  breakdown  among  both  men  and  women. 

184 


While  the  air  seemed  fresher  and  more  invigorating  in  the  north, 
across  the  mountains,  the  health  conditions  were,  if  anything, 
worse  in  the  northern  stations.  It  is  satisfactory  to  report,  hoAv- 
ever,  that  the  malignant  malaria  which  raged  with  such  destruc- 
tiveness among  the  natives  in  the  Chieng  Mai  district  a year  or 
two  ago  has  disappeared. 

POLITICAL  AND  ECONOMIC  CONDITIONS  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

Politically  and  economically  Siam  is  .still  in  the  making,  and 
it  cannot  yet  be  predicted  with  any  contidence  what  the  eventual 
results  will  be.  The  form  of  government  is  and  has  been  for 
four  hundred  years  that  of  a desjiotic  monarchy,  with  absolute 
jiower  in  the  King  such  as  is  jmsses.sed  jierhajis  by  no  other  po- 
tentate on  earth.  But  though  there  is  this  highly  centralized 
and  de.spotic  gm-ernment,  there  is  no  national  feeling  among  the 
people  and  until  recently  no  loyalty  to  country  and  King,  no 
jiatriotism.  The  political  fabric  has  been  weak  al.so  in  the  di- 
vision between  the  southern  half  of  the  country,  old  Siam  proper, 
and  the  northern  half  known  as  the  Laos,  or  the  country  in- 
habited by  that  .section  of  the  Tai  race,  known  as  the  Lao.  For- 
merly all  this  northern  section  was  ruled  by  dilferent  governors, 
or  chows,  who  held  desjiotic  sway  over  (heir  districts  and  exer- 
ci.sed  the  power  of  life  and  death  over  their  subjects.  SloAvly 
but  surely  these  chows  have  had  to  relimpiish  their  hold  njion 
their  states;  their  ab.solute  jxiwer  is  gone  and  if  they  rule  at  all 
they  do  so  as  instruments  of  the  Siamese  (lovernment  at  Bang- 
kok. Their  disjilacement  has  been  bloodless  in  every  case  and 
they  have  invariably  been  allowed  to  retain  large  jn-operties  and 
enjoy  huge  income.s,  a ])olicy  dictated  no  doubt  by  enlightened 
self-interest  on  the  jiart  of  tlie  central  government.  In  all  cases 
it  has  sought  to  terminate  the  enjoyment  of  emoluments  and 
prevent  sncce.ssion  from  father  to  son.  As  .soon  as  feasible  Com- 
missioners are  aj»j)ointe<l  from  Bangkok  to  govern  the  sejiarate 
States,  or  Monthons.  These  in  turn  have  local  governors  under 
them  las  in  the  older  Siam)  and  on  down  to  the  hniidilest  village 
there  are  officers  of  the  government,  each  having  charge  of  units 
of  ten,  under  him.  Fach  village  is  in  charge  of  a village  chief, 
whose  name  and  title  is  jaisted  at  his  gate,  or  at  the  entrance  to 
his  comimund.  So  a jirocess  of  absorjition  and  amalgamation 
has  been  and  is  going  on,  just  as  in  Korea  by  the  Jajianese,  and 
the  Siamese  have  conducted  it  very  ably.  The  grades  and  exam- 
inations for  the  government  schools  are  all  ai-ranged  from  Bang- 
kok, and  it  is  only  a matter  of  time  until  the  Siamese  language 
will  com])letely  disjilace  the  Lao.  The  benevolent  paternalism 
of  the  late  King  has  been  continued  by  the  reigning  monarch 
in  a .somewhat  more  aggr(*ssive  and  individualistic  s]»irit.  lie 
is  seeking  to  create  a feeling  of  unity,  a ]>atriotic  spirit  and  a 
national  consciousness  and  is  laying  hold  ui)on  every  instrument 
that  he  believes  will  serve  this  end.  This  exiilains  some  things 
which  may  seem  on  the  surface  to  be  aimed  directly  against 
Christianity,  but  which  have  for  their  pnrjiose  not  so  mnch  the 

185 


Iliwai'ting  of  Cliiistianit y as  laying  slross  upon  those  influences 
wliicli  tlie  King  believes  will  unite  llie  peojjle.  There  is  no  doubt 
but  that  Christianity  just  now  is  working  in  Siam  in  a less 
favorable  atmosphere  than  formerly.  The  Buddhist  religion  is 
favored  officially  and  is  urged  upon  the  j)eople  in  various  ways. 
Buddhist  prayers  and  songs  are  regularly  practiced  in  the  bar- 
racks by  the  soldiery  and  there  is  no  doubt  but  that  a professing 
Christian  will  tind  preferment  and  advance  in  office  impossible 
at  the  present  time.  In  the  Boyal  Cages’  School,  the  King  has 
established  near  his  i)alace  in  Bangkok  a select  institution  for 
the  schooling  of  high-born  boys  and  he  fnMpjently  addresses  them 
])ersonally  and  gives  them  lectures  on  conduct  and  ethics.  He 
has  created  also  the  “VV’ild  Tigers,”  a sort  of  Boy  Scout  organi- 
zation, though  containing  mature  men,  of  which  he  is  the  head, 
and  though  they  have  no  firearms  the  members  have  drills  and 
maneuvres  and  military  discij)line.  It  is  a kind  of  personal 
bodyguard,  or  army,  attached  to  the  King  distinct  from  the  regu- 
lar army  and  not  subject  to  it.  For  this  reason  it  has  not  been 
in  favor  with  the  army  generals  and  regular  .soldier.s. 

Realizing  the  great  evil  of  polygamy  in  his  country,  the  King 
himself  is  a celibate  and  no  scandal  or  gossij)  whatever  attaches 
to  his  name.  In  nothing  is  he  more  earnest  than  in  his  exhor- 
tations to  the  boys  of  the  Royal  Pages’  School  to  ob.serve  strict 
monogamy. 

The  condition  of  the  country  economically  is  not  good,  for  it 
produces  only  what  is  consumed  by  the  people  and  there  is  no 
surplus.  The  one  stai)le  article  of  food  is  rice  and  a.side  from 
this  there  is  hardly  an  agricultural  product  worth  mentioning, 
nor  is  there  any  industrial  enterprise,  nor  any  manufactory  of 
any  kind,  conducted  by  the  people  of  the  country.  The  great  teak 
forests  are  being  exploited  by  a few  timber  companies  who  hold 
concessions  and  take  out  the  timber  at  considerable  profit,  and 
large  tin  mines  in  Southern  Siam  said  to  produce  07  per  cent, 
of  the  tin  of  the  world,  are  likewise  worked  by  concession  to 
foreigners.  The  Siamese,  and  in  large  measure  the  Lao,  are  quite 
averse  to  work.  The  Siamese  especially  want  to  hold  official 
positions  under  the  government  and  be  the  gentlemen  of  the 
community.  In  every  district  from  Penang  in  the  Straits  Set- 
tlements to  Chieng  Mai  in  northern  Siam,  the  hard  work  of  the 
country  is  being  done  by  Chinese  and  they  are  the  successful 
merchants  and  traders  of  each  community.  They  have  poured 
into  Malaysia  and  Siam  from  the  Island  of  Hainan  and  the 
congested  districts  of  southern  China  to  the  great  benefit  of 
their  adopted  countries.  These  Chinese  are  regarded  as  citizens 
of  the  country  and  are  treated  as  such  by  the  Siamese  govern- 
ment, the  Chinese  government  having  no  Consul  in  Siam. 

MISSION  PROUERTV.  LEGAL  POSITION 

Bj^  a special  government  regulation  all  properties  held  ‘‘within 
twenty-four  hours  by  boat  from  Bangkok”  may  be  secured  by 
suitable  deeds,  and  all  of  the  Board’s  properties  in  Bangkok  and 

186 


Petchaburi  are  so  secured.  For  all  other  properties  in  Siam  the 
Board  lias  only  leases  from  the  government  or  holds  title  by 
“legal  possession”  with  no  jiaiiers  From  the  government  declar- 
ing the  right.  In  the  south  the  leases  are  either  for  ten  or 
twenty  year.s,  the  lease  to  be  renewed  at  the  end  of  the  period 
at  the  option  of  the  government.  This  is  true  also  of  properties 
in  the  north  that  have  been  more  recently  acquired.  A nominal 
annual  rental  is  paid.  In  other  cases  (notably  in  Pit.sanuloke) , 
there  are  perpetual  leases  the  condition  being  that  the  properties 
.Khali  alwaj’s  be  used  for  mission  purposes. 

“J.iegal  iio.sses.sion”  simply  means  that  up  to  this  time  tracts 
have  been  recognized  by  the  government  as  belonging  to  (he 
mi.S'sion  by  virtue  of  long  occu]>ation,  extending  in  some  cases 
over  a period  of  fifty  years. 

With  reference  to  all  properties,  all  interests  of  native  citi- 
zens have  been  purchased  and  all  adverse  claims  satisfied.  It 
is  confidently  believed  that  these  i)roperties  are  in  no  jeopardy 
and  may  continue  to  be  used  as  hitherto,  subject  only  to  the  ex- 
ercise of  the  right  of  eminent  domain  on  the  part  of  the  Siamese 
Government.  In  that  event  the  government  will  grant  due  com- 
pensation, as  it  has  already  done  in  two  cases  where  property 
of  the  mission  has  been  taken  over  by  it.  Suitable  deeds  cannot 
be  secured  for  the  Board’s  i)i*operties  in  Siam  because  of  the 
perpetuation  of  the  now  long  established  extra-territorial  juris- 
diction by  the  United  States.  So  long  as  the  old  treaty  remains 
in  force  and  citizens  of  the  Tbiited  States  residing  in  Siam,  are 
not  amenable  to  Siamese  Courts,  they  will  be  given  no  standing 
as  pro])erty  holders;  nor  will  it  be  given  to  any  corporation  or 
association  organized  in  the  United  States.  In  the  negotiations 
which  have  been  pending  for  .several  years  looking  toward  the 
adoption  of  a new  treaty  between  Siam  and  the  United  States 
this  matter  occujjies  an  imi)ortant  place  and  suitable  steps  have 
been  taken  to  secure  for  the  Board  good  and  sulficient  titles  to 
its  i)roperties  when  the  two  countries  shall  agree  on  the  new 
convention. 

Great  Britain  and  Japan , have  renoujiced  their  extra-terri- 
torial rights  in  Siam  and  their  citizens  can  hold  property  in 
the  country  under  legal  title  just  as  Siamese  citizens  can.  These 
citizens  are  amenable  to  the  mixed  or  International  Courts 
which  have  one  Furoj)ean  rej)resentative  sitting  with  the  Siam- 
ew*  judges.  When  the  Government  of  Siam  shall  declare  and 
jMiblish  her  full  legal  codes,  the  International  Courts  will  not 
l)e  resorted  to,  but  these  citizens  will  be  subject  to  the  regulai- 
Siamese  Courts  just  as  are  Siamese  citizens.  Until  the  United 
States  shall  likewi.se  renounce  her  extra-territorial  jurisdiction, 
the  ])roperty  owned  by  her  citizens  in  Siam  cannot  be  definitely 
.s<‘cnred  to  them  by  regi.stered  deeds. 

One  other  jiha.se  of  ])roperty  holding  remains  to  be  mentioned 
and  that  is  the  r(*cognit ion  by  the  government  of  the  Wat  Chrisa^ 
tine,  that  is  Christian  Church  i)roj)erty  held  iu  trust  for  a con- 

187 


firejjatioii  l)v  a coimnillei*  oleclcd  from  arnoiij'  the  cliuroli  mein- 
herslii]).  A wat  is  a litiddliist  enclosure  or  cftniponiid  wliere  a 
Buddhist  teui]>le  is  located,  and  it  may  contain  a Bnddliist  school 
and  constitute  the  center  of  othei-  Buddhist  activities.  This  the 
f>overnment  has  recognized  as  owned  and  controlled  by  the. 
Buddhist  ])riests.  When  the  (inestion  arose  regarding  Christian 
church  projjerty  owned  and  controlled  by  a local  congregation, 
I’rince  Itamrong  advi.s(Hl  that  the  government  would  recognize 
the  (’hristian  wat,  or  wat  Chrisatine,  as  projierty  dev'oted  to  re- 
ligions and  kindred  j)ui7)o.se.s,  the  title  to  which  was  good  in  the 
eyes  of  the  government,  if  held  by  a committee  of  trustees  be- 
longing to  the  membershii)  of  the  church.  This  is  regarded  as 
an  im]»oi-tant  i-ecognition  and  one  tlmt  may  safely  be  relierl  upon. 

rUOI'ERTY-COXDITION  AND  MAINTENANCE 

We  visited  nine  of  the  eleven  stations  of  the  Board  in  Siam 
and  in  all  of  them  the  compounds  and  buildings  make  a favor- 
able imjiression  ii])on  one.  Indeed  it  is  very  gratifying  to  turn 
in  to  a mission  comj»onnd  where  the  building  or  buildings  reveal 
at  once  their  character,  where  the  grounds  are  well  kept 
and  where  the  very  air  seems  freer  and  easier  to  breathe  than 
that  of  the  heathen  world  outside.  Their  contrast  with  other 
buildings  is  not  so  noticeable  in  Bangkok,  where  there  are  many 
foreign  houses  and  fine  government  buildings,  but  in  every  other 
j)lace  the  mission  residences  and  buildings  are  among  the  best  in 
the  town  and  stand  out  rather  strikingly.  One  might  wander  about 
as  a stranger  and  yet  he  could  not  fail  to  identify  mission  prop- 
erty. Our  buildings  are  not  elaborate  in  any  way;  on  the  other 
hand,  to  western  eyes  they  are  of  the  simplest  type,  but  they 
are  mansions  to  the  natives  who  do  not  have  two-storied  struc- 
tures nor  often  more  than  one  or  two  rooms  for  ten  or  twelve 
jiersons.'  This  ditference,  while  a necessary  one,  is  an  obstacle 
in  the  relations  between  the  missionary  and  those  among  whom 
he  live.s,  for  the  latter  regard  him  as  pos.sessed  of  great  wealth 
and  in  command  of  unlimited  means  which  he  could  use  in  sup- 
plying their  needs  if  he  chose.  A few  individual  structures 
among  the  stations  are  not  .so  attractive  in  appearance  but  in 
the.se  ca.ses  some  repair  work  and  two  coats  of  paint  would  mate 
a vast  ditference.  With  two  exception.s,  Pitsanuloke  and  Prae, 
mi.ssion  properties  or  compounds,  are  separated  in  Siam.  There  • 
does  not  seem  to  be  the  necessity  for  all  the  residences  to  be  to- 
gether within  one  enclosure  which  exists  for  the  most  part  in 
China.  This  arrangement  has  the  advantage  of  ottering  more 
of  a change  in  visiting  from  one  house  to  another  and  it  breaks 
the  monotony  of  immediate  environment.  In  some  compounds, 
however,  buihlings  are  located  much  too  near  each  other,  as  on 
the  Hosj)ital  compound  at  Petchaburi,  and  on  the  mission  Press 
compound,  in  Bangkok.  It  Pitsanuloke  aud  Prae,  while  the 
propeisty  is  contiguous,  or  all  in  one  piece,  in  each  case  there  is 
a fine  outlook  and  open  view,  for  one  over  the  great  river  and 

188 


for  the  other  across  the  plains  to  the  mountains.  Prince  Koyal’s 
College  at  Chieng  Mai.  with  the  two  residences  has.  perhaps,  the 
be.st  looking  compound  in  the  mission,  especially  with  the  hand- 
some new  college  building  erected  out  of  the  Kennedy  Fund, 
and  flanked  by  the  tine  Theological  School  building,  given  by 
Mr.  L.  H.  Severance.  The  grounds  have  been  well  cultivated 
and  cared  for,  the  boys  of  the  college  doing  all  the  work  under 
the  direction  of  the  principal. 

As  to  the  maintenance  and  improvements,  more  attention 
should  be  given  to  the  upkeep  of  buildiugs.  The  tropical  climate 
with  its  hot  sun  and  rain  and  moisture  is  exceedingly  hard  on 
frame  structures  and  the  white  ants  are  a constant  menace. 
The  missions  ought  to  set  a.side  larger  amounts  in  Class  YIT  for 
repairs  and  painting  in  order  to  keep  tlie  properties  in  good 
condition,  and  to  forestall  bigger  losses  from  unchecked  deterior- 
ation. 

Property  committees  should  make  careful  and  regular  inspec- 
tions and  report  to  the  mission  cases  tliat  need  attention  and 
the  missi(»ns  shonld  give  these  needs  important  i>laces  in  their 
budgets. 

The  .same  liolds  tiMie  with  regard  to  imju-ovements  to  proj)- 
erties,  there  being  one  or  two  ca.'jes  now  in  tlie  missions  where 
it  seems  absolutely  necessary  Unit  .some  money  be  spent  for  the 
sake  of  jiroper  sanitation  and  health.  One  of  these  is  tlie  in- 
stallation of  jiroper  .sewer  arrangements  for  the  Bangkok  Chris- 
tian College.  Conditions  are  bad  at  ]»resent  and  a menace  to 
the  health  of  the  several  hundred  stndents  as  well  as  to  the  mis- 
sionaries residing  at  the  cidlege.  The  small  striji  of  land  which 
now  jirevents  access  to  the  city  canal  shouhl  be  itnrchased  and 
the  pipe-line  carried  across  ic  the  new  property  furnishing  con- 
venient sites  for  houses  for  teachers,  who  tiow  go  long  distances 
to  atid  Irom  their  homes.  This  striji  slnutld  be  iti  otir  jio.ssession 
also  as  it  sejiarates  our  two  jirojierties.  Cither  this,  or  a sejitic 
tank  system  shonld  be  installed.  Bad  conditions  jirevail  like- 
wi.se  at  the  Boon  Itt  Memorial  and  these  shotild  lie  remedied 
lor  the  sake  of  the  health  of  the  family  resident  there.  Doubt- 
less there  are  other  similar  needs  riMiuiring  attetition,  but  thesi* 
are  cited  as  juvssing  exanijiles.  On  insjiectitig  the  conditions 
surroutiding  the  Sumray  jirojierty  in  Bangkok  we  called  to  mitid 
other  cases  where  encroachments  of  one  kind  or  another  have 
lK*en  allowed,  tintil  the  interests  of  the  Board  had  beeti  over- 
shadowed atid  nearly  lost.  It  is  clear  th:it  no  further  iiermis- 
sions  should  be  grantt^l  for  buildings  or  other  tises  on  this  jiroji 
erty  without  the  direct  authorization  of  the  Board.  It  would 
be  well  for  the  mission  to  carefully  consider  the  ti.ses  to  which 
the  jiroperty  might  be  jint  in  the  future  atid  make  some  recom- 
mendation to  the  Board  concerning  it.  If  the  larger  jiart  of 
it  ought  to  b(*  sold  suitable  steps  should  be  taken  to  that  end, 
and  tin*  Board  will  join  heartily  with  tin*  mission  in  consider- 
ing the  interests  of  the  chnrch  and  the  cemetery  and  the  school 
building  located  upon  it. 


189 


NETW  HUILDlNfiS,  PLANS  AND  ARCHITECTURE 

Tlip  erection  of  new  bniklinj^s  is  no  easy  jtrocess  in  a country 
where  tliere  is  no  market  in  wliich  to  buy  materials,  but  where 
Ihey  must  all  be  preparerl,  as  well  as  put  together.  It  is  almost 
impossible  to  estimate  accurately  what  a building  will  cost  be- 
cause of  the  varv'ing  and  uncertain  factors  and  the  oversight  of 
the  work  and  directing  of  the  workmen  is  beyond  the  capacity 
of  the  average  missionarw  The  history  of  the  Kenneth  Macken- 
zie School  Building  at  Lampang  points  the  lesson  and  makes 
clear  the  necessity  of  having  skilled  management  in  building 
o])erations,  while  the  new  buildings  for  the  college  and  seminar*>' 
at  Chieng  Mai  show  the  great  advantage  of  such  skill.  It  will 
be  well  if  the  buildings  now  being  built  and  those  in  prospect 
can  have  the  same  attention  and  scientific  oversight.  The.se 
buildings  include  the 

Residence  for  Theological  Seminary  at  Chieng  Mai. 

The  Church  Building  at  Lampang  (partly  constructed). 

The  proposed  Medical  School  Building  and 

The  propo.sed  Chapel  for  the  College,  both  at  Chieng  Mai. 
The  mission  has  done  well  to  standardize  the  plan  for  residences, 
leeway  being  given  to  allow  for  differences  due  to  location  and 
exposure. 

FINANCE— OVERDRAFTS 

The  Korth  Siam  Mission  is  in  process  of  taking  care  of  over- 
drafts made  in  previous  years  on  current  work,  several  of  the 
stations  having  entirely  caught  up.  It  will  require  another  year 
for  others  to  get  free  and  clear.  These  overdrafts  have  not  been 
Imported  to  the  Board  in  the  regular  accounts,  the  overdrafts 
being  charged  to  the  appropriations  for  the  new  year  in  each 
case.  There  are  also  a number  of  overdrafts  on  new  buildings 
for  which  provision  should  be  made,  and  recommendation  for 
which  will  be  presented  in  a separate  memorandum.  The  mis.sion 
is  now  fully  alive  to  the  necessity  of  keeping  within  the  appro- 
priations, and  has  made  a building  rule  that  e.stimates  for  orig- 
inal plans  for  a building  shall  not  exceed  SO  per  cent,  of  the  ap- 
propriation. 

The  accounts  of  the  South  Siam  Mission  were  centralized  dur- 
ing the  visit  of  the  Beputation.  the  treasurer  at  Bangkok  being 
authorized  to  deal  with  individual  missionaries  direct,  thus  re- 
lieving station  treasurers  of  a large  part  of  their  treasury  and 
accounting  work. 

SALARIES  IN  SOUTH  SIAM 

While  in  attendance  at  the  general  meeting  in  Bangkok  the 
question  of  salaries  for  southern  Siam  missionaries  emerged  in 
connection  with  accounts  and  in  response  to  our  questionings 
the  following  statements  were  made. 

Several  years  ago  a Joint  Council  of  the  Siam  !Mi.s,cion  agreed 
that  a fair  salary  for  both  missions  was  .^1,400.00  for  a married 
couple;  but  the  system  of  graded  salaries  was  adopted,  so  the 

190 


younger  people  must  wait  fifteen  years  before  they  attain  to  the 
“fair  salary”  allowance.  The  §1,250.00  on  which  a missionary 
begins  his  work  in  Bangkok  is  not  sufficient  to  cover  a reason- 
able scale  of  living.  In  Bangkok  the  di.stances  between  our  A’ari- 
ons  centers  and  residences  are  iniinen.se  and  local  transportation 
costs  are  heavy.  Duties  that  demand  travel  in  the  city  require 
this  expenditure  and  no  allowance  is  made  for  it  under  the  bud- 
get. One  missionary  who  keeps  a careful  expense  account  spends 
from  Sfi.OO  to  §10.00  (gold  i every  month  in  this  way.  The  war 
in  Europe  has  increased  prices  of  commodities.  A comparison 
follows : 

Before  the  War  Present  Priees 

Xatiiral  Milk  (boxi...  §6.75  same  qnantityi  ..  .§13.05 
Sweetened  Milk  fboxl..  12. .50  same  quantity....  21.00 
Flour,  48  lb.s 4.57  .same  quantity. . . . 8.00 

It  can  easily  be  seen  that  if  there  was  a pinch  before  the  war, 
the  pressure  is  now  acute.  One  young  missionars'  and  his  wife 
came  to  the  field  entirely  free  from  debt  but  they  found  it  im- 
possible to  make  ends  meet  so  their  family  at  home  has  sent 
.<^1 00.00  a year  to  help  them  out.  However,  this  welcome  assist- 
ance has  had  to  cease  and  the  missionary  has  had  to  face  the 
question  of  giving  up  his  mi.ssionary  career  as  he  is  now  §100.00 
in  debt  (not  to  the  mis.sion).  His  friends  at  home  think  it  is  an 
impossible  situation  for  him  and  urjre  his  resignation.  He  has 
been  teaching  extra  hours  and  earning  by  this  means  60  ticals 
a month  f§22.80),  but  every  cent  has  been  turned  into  the  mi.s- 
sion  trea.sury  according  to  the  rule.  The  wife  was  earning 
.'5:1,000.00  a year  as  a teacher  at  home  before  becoming  a mission- 
ary. Now.  even  by  the  exercise  of  the  stricte.st  economy  and 
thrift  they  are  in  debt,  although  tliey  buy  the  cheapest  grade 
of  sugar,  the  cheaj)est  grade  of  canned  butter,  employ  the  cheap- 
est grade  of  cook  and  spend  but  45  ticals  t.^16.10)  per  montli 
for  current  market  supplies.  In  justice  to  their  children  they 
are  manfully  saving  their  allowances  for  their  education,  re- 
garding the  money  as  a sacred  fnist.  Wlien  visiting  in  the  Xortli 
Siam  ^fission,  different  missionaries  on  two  occasions  of  their 
own  accord  sjtoke  of  the  inadequacy  of  the  Bangkok  salaries, 
one  of  them  .raying.  “If  our  salaries  there  in  tlie  north t are  fair, 
it  is  certain  tliat  Bangkok's  are  too  low.”  The  Board  has  in- 
sisted tliat  the  two  mi.ssions.  north  and  south,  should  act  to- 
gether in  tlie  matter  of  salaries,  bnt  the  conditions  ai-e  not  the 
same;  they  are  believed  to  be  more  unequal  than  the  conditions 
between  Bangkok  and  the  Philippines  where  a married  man’s 
salary  is  §1.550.00. 

Furthermore.  Pitsanuloke  in  the  south  Siam  district  .suffers 
in  comj)arison  with  the  northern  stations  as  missionaries  here 
])ay  freight  charges  on  all  their  goods  which  are  shipped  np  from 
Bangkok  by  rail,  wheivas  the  Board  makes  an  annual  grant  to 
the  northeni  stations  to  cover  carriage  of  freight  up  the  river. 

191 


The  young  luissioiiaries  at  Pitsaiiuloke  feel  the  ftiiancial  pressure 
also.  The  conditions  with  regard  to  I’etchaburi  and  Tap  Teang 
should  also  be  investigated.  A missionary  at  the  latter  place 
has  drawn  some  iis.500.00  gold  out  of  the  savings  bank  and  is  using 
it  up  on  the  suj)port  of  liis  family  in  the  T'nited  States  while  he 
remains  at  his  post  on  the  field  and  boards.  He  says  he  is  glad 
to  do  it  and  his  children  will  just  be  through  with  their  e<luca- 
tion  when  the  money  is  u.sed  up. 

Our  missionaries  and  missions  are  slow  to  take  up  the  ques- 
tion of  salary  advances.  They  feel  that  every  addition  to  f'lass 
I means  le.ssening  of  the  amounts  in  f'lasses  IV-X  and  they  are 
not  willing  to  put  their  personal  interests  ahead  of  the  interests 
of  their  work.  So  the  Board  does  not  get  the  formal  requests 
from  the  missions  which  at  times  ought  to  be  made.  It  is  the 
comniouest  axiom  iu  the  science  of  j)romoting  efficiency  that  a 
man’s  mind  must  be  free  from  cankering  anxiety  in  order  to  do 
his  best  work,  and  while  the  Board  is  taking  every  possible  step 
to  increa.se  the  missionary’s  power,  as  for  instance,  by  making 
apj)ropriations  for  extra  studies  in  medicine  and  pedagogy’,  it 
must  not  lose  sight  of  the  fundamental  and  primary  though  less 
apparent  requirement  of  an  adequate  living  income  for  its 
workers. 

OUTFIT 

The  practice  of  the  Board  in  advising  missionaries  to  take  very 
little,  if  any,  household  goods  with  them  was  well  sustained  by 
observations  in  Siam.  British  companies  in  Penang,  Singapoi-e 
and  Bangkok  can  furni.sh  everything  reipiired  and  if  preferred, 
many  aidicles  can  be  made  locally. 

CONCLUSION 

The  seven ty-si.x  years  of  history  of  our  Siam  Missions  and 
the  work  as  we  see  it  today  testify  to  the  difficulty  and  unfniit- 
fulness  of  the  field.  The  words  of  a young  woman  teacher,  a second 
generation  missionary,  who  has  known  three  stations  in  Siam 
come  back  to  one.  “There  is  such  terrible  indifference  among  the 
])eople.’’  Faithful  work  will  be  done  in  leading  adulFs  or  children 
into  an  understanding  faith  and  they  will  seem  to  be  blessetl 
with  light,  yet  they  will  go  away,  withdrawing  from  the  influ- 
ence of  the  missionary,  and  will  seem  to  forget  or  ignoi‘e  all 
their  Christias  teaching,  returning  to  their  foraier  faith  and  life. 
Many  have  fallen  away,  who  can  be  named  by  name,  and  who 
are  well  known  to  the  Christian  community  around  them.  The 
boys  in  the  Bangkok  Christian  College  are  for  the  great  majority 
quite  indifferent  to  Christianity  and  only  tolerate  Christian  ex- 
erci.ses  for  the  sake  of  the  educational  advantages  of  the  school. 
The  girls  at  Wang  Lang  School  accept  likewise  the  Christian  ser- 
vices while  in  attendance,  but  expect  to  relinquish  all  Christian- 
ity on  leaving  when  they  return  to  their  families.  Gradua- 
tion Day  among  both  boys  and  girls  is  known  as  ‘'Good-by  Jesus 
Day.”  Though  there  are  striking  exceptions,  and  the  visitor  re- 

192 


joices  in  the  devotion  of  native  evangelists  and  ministers  and  in 
the  spirit  of  some  of  the  churches,  generally  speaking  one  misses 
the  warmth  and  glow  of  Christian  joy,  and  there  do  not  seem 
to  be  the  number  of  children  in  church  and  Sunday-school  that 
there  ought  to  be.  The  deadening  of  Buddhism  is  appalling, 
the  climate  is  tropical  and  the  people  have  as  yet  scarcely  re- 
ceived a breath  of  the  aggressive  spirit  of  the  modern  world.  In 
conditions  like  these  our  noble  band  of  missionaries  is  living 
and  working — each  man  or  woman  striving  to  accomplish  the 
task  set  him  or  her  to  do ; ready  to  listen  to  competent  counsel 
and  humbly  anxious  to  find  out  some  better  and  more  effective 
methods  for  conducting  the  work.  The  divine  call  to  the  task  is 
evident  and  the  response  also  springs  from  the  heart  of  God. 
“Can  you  respect  these  people?”  was  asked  of  a group  of  mis- 
sionaries, and  the  reply  came  quick  and  emphatic,  “Eespect 
them ! We  love  them !”  Everv  mission  field  has  its  advantages 
and  disadvantages  according  to  the  point  of  view,  and  the  diffi- 
culty of  the  Siam  field  has  its  advantages  in  calling  forth  grim 
determination,  and  undaunted  courage  in  prosecuting  a work 
that  has  God’s  call  in  it  and  that  depends  upon  His  promises. 
Who  knows  but  that  after  much  cultivation  there  will  come  a 
great  and  sudden  harvest  as  witness  to  the  faithful  work  and 
noble  lives  unselfishly  poured  out  upon  Siam’s  soil.  May  the 
Church  at  home  sustain  its  representatives  in  this  far-away  land 
by  its  prayers,  and  by  its  gifts,  that  they  may  nobly  press  on  un- 
daunted, in  their  God-given  task. 


7 — Report  of  Deiputa<Uon. 


193 


II.  THE  MISSION  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 


1.  Letters  from  the  Different  Stations 197-219 

(1)  Wet  Days  in  Iloilo 197-200 

(2)  A Fountain  of  Living  Waters,  Dumaguete.  . 200-204 

(3)  On  the  Coast  of  Bohol:  Tagbilaran 204-206 

(4)  Christ  in  Cebu 206-209 

(5)  On  the  Island  of  Leyte:  Tacloban 209-211 

(6)  In  Southern  Luzon:  Albay  and  Naga 211-214 

(7)  Through  the  Cocoanut  Groves  of  Laguna  and 

Tayabas  214-217 

(8)  The  Xew  Day  in  Manila 217-219 

2.  Some  Present-day  Impressions  of  Conditions  in  the 

Philippines  220-228 

3.  Some  Aspects  of  the  Eeligious  Conditions  in  the  Philip- 

pines   229-235 

4.  Questions  of  Policy  and  Method  in  the  Philippine 

^fission  236-276 


5.  A Review  of  the  Medical  Mission  Work  in  the  Philippines 

277-297 
298-304 


6.  Property,  Treasury,  and  Business  Questions 


II.  THE  MISSION  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 


1.  LETTERS  FROM  THE  DIFFERENT  STATIONS  IN  THE 

PHILIPPINE  MISSION 

(1)  WET  DAYS  IX  ILOILO 

Iloilo,  .Inly  31,  1915. 

Coming  directly  from  Singajxire  by  a boat  of  the  Spanish 
Mail  Line  which  runs  between  Harcelona  and  Manila,  one  of  the 
few  remaining  ties  which  still  bind  the.se  two  peoples,  whose 
interests  for  so  many  centuries  were  intertwined,  we  reached 
Iloilo  last  Monday  morning.  We  should  have  come  in  Sunday 
evening  but  no  ])ilot  would  venture  out  from  Giiimaras  in  the 
.storm  that  was  blowing  and  we  lay  to  all  night  facing  the  storm 
under  just  enough  headway  lo  stand  still  within  sight  of  a warn- 
ing, yet  friendly  light  that  winked  reassuringly  red  and  white 
the  whole  night  througli.  I‘]vei'  since,  we  have  had  nothing  but 
wind  and  rain,  except  when  nature  stopjied  to  take  breath  in 
order  to  begin  again.  All  week  long  the  storm  warning  has 
hung  on  the  marine  signal  tower  ami  the  little  boat  on  which 
we  were  to  have  sailed  to  Dumaguete  has  not  been  able  to  jiut 
out  to  sea.  We  are  ty])hooned  here,  accordingly,  beyond  the  time 
that  we  had  ])lanned  to  stay.  But  it  cannot  be  for  long  and  we 
are  glad  that  it  has  be<m  here. 

It  must  be  said  at  once  that  there  is  nothing  here  in  the  way 
of  scenery.  Neither  nature  nor  art  has  done  anything  to  make 
Iloilo  a place  of  beauty  or  of  interest.  The  best  that  can  be 
said  of  it  is  that  it  is  an  old  place,  not  without  its  imjiortance 
in  the  ancient  days  and  ranking  second  or  third  in  population 
and  in  commerce  among  the  cities  of  the  islands  today.  The 
city  stands  on  a flat,  just  south  of  the  .laro  River  at  the  .south- 
eastern corner  of  the  island  of  Panay.  Along  the  water  front 
the  storm  of  the  j>ast  week  has  driven  the  waves  in  breakers  right 
up  into  the  streets.  The  downi»ours  have  left  great  lakes  of  water 
on  the  highways,  and  wherever  the  lots  have  not  been  tilled  in. 
The  buildings  are  the  simple  Filijdno  huts  of  bamboo  and  thatch, 
or  more  substantial  and  sjiacious  structures  of  frame  or  mas- 
onry covered  with  the  corrugated  iron  roofing  which  is  spread- 
ing its  blemish  and  eye-sore  over  all  this  trojiical  and  oriental 
world. 

The  native  houses,  the  water  buffalo,  and  the  peojile  them- 
selves in  their  dress,  their  features  and  their  music,  remind  one 
very  vividly  of  Siam,  s]»ecially  of  northern  Siam.  One  might 
be  transported  asleej)  from  one  of  these  countries  to  the  other 
and  oi)ening  his  eyes,  1k^  in  doubt  as  to  whether  he  was  not  still 
in  the  land  from  which  he  had  come. 


This  island  of  Panaj^  is  a joint  mission  field  occupied  by  our 
niissionai^'ies  and  by  the  northern  Baptists.  There  are  three 
j)iovinces  in  the  island.  One  of  these  is  cared  for  wholly'  by  the 
Baptists,  anotlier  wholly  by  ourselves,  and  the  third  and  larg- 
est containing  the  city  of  Iloilo,  is  divided  between  the  two.  Our 
])art  of  the  total  j)oj)ulation  of  7.10,000  is  perhaps  2.10,000  or 
200,000,  and  the  evangelization  of  this  population  scattered  over 
a large  area  in  small  towns  and  little  barrio.s,  our  share  in  the 
maintenance  of  a union  mis.sion  hospital  and  a donnitoiw  for 
boys  attending  tlie  Government  High  School  in  Iloilo,  a neces- 
sary and  fruitful  ministry  to  the  American  population,  and  the 
establishment  and  supervision  of  day  schools  in  districts  which 
the  government  has  not  been  able  to  touch,  fall  upon  two  men, 
Dr.  Hall  and  Mr.  Doltz,  and  their  wives,  and  Miss  Klein,  our 
nurse  in  the  ho.si)ital.  None  but  men  as  efficient  and  devoted  as 
these  two  could  carry  single-handed  such  a work  as  this,  ex- 
ceeding in  its  extent  and  difficulty,  the  work  of  many  of  our 
home  ])resbyteries  and  even  of  some  of  our  home  synods.  They 
could  not  care  for  it  in  the  effective  and  fruitful  way  in  which 
they  are  caring  for  it,  were  it  not  for  the  fact  that  they  work 
with  half  a dozen  efficient  Filipino  pastors  and  evangelists,  who 
with  them,  constitute  the  i)resbytery  of  Panay,  one  of  the  three 
presbyteries  which  make  up  the  independent  Filipino  Synod  in 
which  the  ambitions  and  efforts  of  the  mission  and  the  natural 
de.sires  of  the  Filipinos  have  secured  for  the  Presbyterian  Church 
in  the  island,  complete  self-government. 

I wish  that  any  friends  at  home  who  think  that  foreign  mis- 
sionaries of  different  denominations  are  quarreling  together  for 
the  occupation  of  the  field,  might  have  been  with  us  here  this 
week  in  the  conferences  with  our  Baptist  friends.  We  carry  on 
with  them,  as  has  been  said,  a union  hospital  and  a union  dor- 
mitory for  government  students,  who  come  from  all  over  the 
province.  We  have  a most  happy  distribution  of  responsibility 
which  enables  us  to  cover  the  whole  field  of  the  island  as  well 
as  can  be  done  with  an  inadequate  staff  of  missionarie.s.  We 
send  our  boys  and  girls  and  Bible  women  to  the  educational  in- 
stitutions of  the  Baptists  at  .Taro  and  they  make  equally  free 
use  of  our  institution  at  Duniaguete  which  is  in  the  eastern  half 
of  this  Visayan  group  of  islands  of  which  Panay  is  the  western- 
most. We  spent  yesterday  afternoon  with  our  Baptist  friends 
in  Jaro  and  saw  with  delight  the  work  that  they  are  doing  there. 
Their  large  industrial  school  provides  a sensible  and  effective 
education  for  more  than  three  hundred  boys  coming  from  the 
farms  and  the  little  villages  who  could  not  afford  to  get  an  edu- 
cation unless  they  were  given  this  admirable  opportunity  in  a 
school  where  they  can  help  to  work  their  own  way.  The  student 
body  is  organized  into  a self-governing  republic  with  its  own 
constitution  and  by-laws  of  which  the  following  is  the  preamble: 
‘‘We,  the  students  of  the  Jaro  Industrial  School,  in  order  to 
maintain  peace  and  order,  to  uphold  justice,  to  acquire  moral 
' 198 


courage,  to  establish  the  liberty  of  intelligently  choosing  oue^s 
own  religion,  and  in  order  to  train  ourselves  in  self-government, 
do  hereby  adopt  this  constitution  and  these  by-laws.”  Boys 
cannot  fail  to  go  out  from  such  a school  to  be  truer  and  more 
useful  men. 

The  union  hospital  of  which  Dr.  Hall  is  now  the  head,  is  the 
only  hospital  in  Iloilo,  except  St.  Paul’s  conducted  by  the  Roman 
Catholics  but  without  an  American  medical  missionary.  Dr. 
Hall  is  known  and  beloved  throughout  the  island  and  life  after 
life  has  passed  beneath  his  influence  in  the  hospital  to  emerge 
with  health  and  strength  restored  and  also  with  character  re- 
generated and  with  a new  and  living  Christian  faith.  Yes- 
terday afternoon  at  the  dedication  of  the  dormitory  given  by 
a Bapti.st  woman  in  Minnesota  with  the  understanding  that  it 
was  to  be  jointly  conducted  by  the  Baptist  and  Presbyterian 
mi.ssionaries,  the  principal  address  was  made  by  an  elderly  Fil- 
ipino gentleman  of  the  old  school  who,  some  years  ago,  had  en- 
tered the  ho.spital  blinded  by  cataract,  and  with  prejudices 
ecpially  blind  against  evangelical  Christianity,  and  Avho  had  come 
out  with  his  sight  restored  and  the  eyes  of  his  heart  enlightened, 
to  whom  the  Bible  has  become  now  the  most  precious  and  fa- 
miliar of  all  books. 

The  work  of  such  a dormitory  as  this  is  absolutely  indispens- 
able here  and  it  is  heartily  welcomed  by  the  government  educa- 
tional authorities.  The  Iloilo  high  school  is  the  only  full  grade 
high  school  in  the  island  and  boys  and  girls  come  from  all  three 
provinces  to  attend  it.  Living  in  a strange  city  they  are  subject 
to  familiar  temptations  and  need  the  careful  home  iutluence 
which  these  dormitories  provide.  The  government  has  its  own 
dormitory  here  for  girls,  and  both  Protestants  and  Roman  Cath- 
olics are  doing  what  they  can  to  provide  for  the  boys.  It  is  a 
wonderful  work  which  the  government  is  accomplishing  in  the 
schools  in  raising  up  a new  generation  who  possess  and  are  pos- 
sessed by  our  best  American  ideals.  The  intelligent  men  and 
women  who  are  directing  these  schools  realize  that  the  important 
thing  is  to  produce  character  and  they  have  heartily  co-operated 
with  the  various  religious  agencies  which  are  seeking  to  wield 
upon  the  lives  of  these  boys  and  girls  the  character-producing 
forces  which  will  sui)j)lement  what  the  schools  are  doing  in  the 
class  room.  One  is  .speciall}'  inij)ressed  in  visiting  the  govern- 
ment schools  with  the  work  which  they  are  doing  in  the  trades 
.schools  for  boys  and  in  the  domestic  science  schools  for  girls. 
Here  in  Iloilo  the  boys  were  making  excellent  furniture  and  in 
addition  to  their  homelier  house  work,  Mrs.  Wright  and  Miss 
Lucas  showed  us  in  the  government  girls’  dormitory  the  spotle.ss 
kitchen,  in  which  the  girls  were  working,  and  the  rows  of  fre.sh 
jelly  jars  paratliued  and  ready  to  lay  away,  and  which  were  the 
result  of  just  eighty  minutes’  work  since  the  raw  fruit  had  been 
brought  ill  from  the  market. 


199 


This  youug  Filipino  life  is  all  eager  and  plastic  now.  The 
boys  were  flocking  around  Mr.  Doltz  in  a good  fellowship  which 
laid  their  lives  ojten  to  the  iniju-essions  which  his  strength  and 
earnestness  of  charactei-  will  stamp  njK)n  them.  And  last  night 
in  a heavy  storm  whicli  j)iit  out  the  electi-ic  lights,  a crowd  of 
students  came  to  the  chapel  and  listened  with  an  attention  as 
silent  as  death  and  as  eager  as  life  to  what  we  had  to  say  to 
them  about  character,  and  not  the  form  of  government  and  not 
material  wealth,  as  constituting  the  tnie  strength  and  power  of 
nations.  Most  of  the  time  the  meeting  was  in  absolute  darkness 
and  Mr.  Moody’s  old  lesson  that  character  is  what  a man  is  in 
the  dark,  came  home,  I think,  with  real  meaning  to  many  of 
those  warm-hearted,  attractive  Filipino  lads. 

When  these  tyj>hoon  zephyrs  subside  and  we  go  on  from  Iloilo 
to  the  eastern  islands,  it  will  be  with  a new  appreciation  of  the 
opportunity  which  is  presented  here  to  true-hearted  Christian 
men  and  women,  and  it  will  be  with  a new  joy  that  we  have  met 
here  just  such  men  and  women,  who  are  doing  real  work  for 
their  fellows  and  for  the  world  and  who  de.serve  to  the  last  degree 
all  the  confidence  and  love  and  prayer  which  we  can  give  them. 

K.  E.  S. 

(2j  A FOUNTAIN  OF  LIVING  WATERS:  DUMAGUETE 

August  6,  1915. 

The  trip  from  Iloilo  by  starlight  around  the  northern  end  of 
Occidental  Xegros,  and  then  bj’  daylight,  in  pleasant  summer 
weather  and  over  quiet  seas,  down  the  Tanon  strait  to  Duma- 
guete  is  an  experience  likeh'  to  abide  enduringly  in  one’s  mem- 
ory. Just  such  an  experience,  certainly,  will  be  one  of  our  last- 
ing recollections  of  the  Philippines.  After  a week  of  constant 
rain  and  tempest,  we  left  Iloilo  late  at  night  in  the  little  .steamer 
‘‘Hoi-Ching.”  When  the  moniing  broke  the  sea  was  all  at  peace, 
white  sails  of  fishing  boats  and  the  little,  paddled,  oiit-riggered 
barotos  dotted  the  water.  To  the  south  the  mountain  ranges 
of  Negros  lifted  up  their  high  heads.  Sandy  islands,  covered 
with  cocoanut  palms,  fringed  the  shores,  and  all  the  long  and 
lovely  day  we  sailed  down  the  strait  with  Negros  to  the  west 
and  on  the  east  the  green  and  rocky  hills  of  Cebu  looking  not  un- 
like some  of  the  coasts  of  western  Scotland.  When  the  night 
settled  down,  the  lights  of  the  fishermen  gleamed  along  the  shores 
and  in  a little  less  than  twenty-four  hours  from  the  time  that 
we  had  started,  our  small  steamer  dropped  anchor  off  the  red 
light  of  Duniaguete  and  we  saw  the  bon  fires  which  the  Silliman 
Institute  boys  had  built  upon  the  beach  and  heard  their  welcom- 
ing cheers  and  the  mu.sic  of  their  band.  It  was  just  such  a wel- 
come as  a like  crowd  of  American  school  boys  would  have  known 
how  to  give  at  home,  and  as  we  were  carried  ashore  up  the  long, 
sloping  beach  and  looked  out  over  the  sea  of  eager,  friendly  faces 
we  could  not  but  wish  that  Dr.  Silliman  and  Dr.  Ellinwoc^,  who 

200 


together  furaished  the  gifts  and  the  foresight  which  established 
this  work,  might  have  been  with  \is  to  see  the  great  thing  that 
they  had  done. 

For  Silliman  Institute  at  Dnniagnete  has  become  a fountain 
of  living  water  for  all  the  central  and  southern  Philipine  Islands. 
The  morning  of  the  day  of  our  arrival,  it  enrolled  (199  students 
and  two  more  came  in  during  the  day.  Three  hundred  boys, 
eager  to  come  to  work  their  way,  have  been  refused  this  year  as 
the  school  has  no  room  for  more  and  cannot — ^without  extension, 
enabling  it  to  take  more  pay-students,  or  endowment,  increasing 
its  resources — carry  the  burden  of  these  hundreds  of  additional 
working  .students.  Everv  spot  on  which  a boy  can  sleep  at  night, 
is  already  full.  It  was  a sight,  crowded  with  lessons,  to  go 
about  the  dormitories  after  lights  were  out  at  ten  o’clock  and 
to  see  the  tables  and  floors  and  every  square  foot  of  the  veran- 
dahs covered  with  boys  on  cots  or  on  their  simple  mats,  packed 
together  like  fishes  in  a tin  A movement  for  enlargement  has 
met  with  enthusiastic  support  among  the  parents  of  the  boys 
and  those  fathers  who  are  eager  to  make  it  possible  for  their 
sons  who  have  not  been  able  to  get  in  to  enjoy  the  benefits  of  the 
Institute.  Fifty  thousand  jtesos,  nearly,  have  now  been  pledged 
and  (he  missionaries  hope  to  raise  .“'.50,000  gold  in  the  islands 
themselves,  which  they  ask  the  home  church  to  duplicate  with 
another  .‘i'!r)0,000. 

Dr.  Silliman’s  idea  was  to  found  an  industrial  school,  and  the 
industrial  element  with  agriculture  added,  is  conspicuous  in 
the  life  of  the  institution.  For  some  parts  of  his  course  every 
boy  has  to  study  agriculture  and  carpentry  and  220  boys  are 
working  their  way  through  by  means  of  the  shops  and  by  doing 
all  the  work  that  boys  can  (lo  in  the  school.  (Chiefly  with  boy 
labor  also  the  school  buildings  have  been  built,  the  grounds  put 
in  order,  the  improvements  made  which  have  turned  what  fif- 
twMi  years  ago  was  a ]»iece  of  wa.ste  haunted  wilderness  into  a 
garden  sj)ot  which  has  betm  an  object  lesson  to  half  the  Philip- 
])ine  ai-chip(dago.  If  any  one  would  like  to  see  what  kind  of 
work  these  boys  can  do,  let  him  go  to  the  IMiilippine  Islands’  sec- 
tion of  the  San  Francisco  Fxj»osition  and  look  at  the  Silliman 
Institute  exhibit.  We  have  seem  as  beautiful  pieces  of  furniture 
here  as  we  have  ever  seen  anywhere,  especially  <lesks  of  exquis- 
itely grained  wood  made  entirely  by  these  1m)vs,  many  of  whom 
a few  years  ago  would  have  looked  down  with  contempt  upon 
all  manual  toil. 

Silliman  aims  to  be  a sort  of  combination  of  the  Mt.  Hermon 
School  and  IIani])ton  Institute  and  Williams  College  for  the 
Philippines,  and  has  alrea<ly  laid  its  hold  upon  the  confidence 
and  alfection  of  the  islands.  It  is  one  of  the  four  institutions 
whose  Arts  degree  is  recognized  by  the  Fniversity  in  Manila. 
The  other  three  are  two  Homan  Catholic  Schools  and  the  Arts 
department  of  the  university  itself.  Wherever  one  goes  through 
the  islands,  he  hears  only  ])i-aise  of  the  work  of  the  Institute  as 

201 


a school  and  yet  more  of  its  influence  on  manliness  and  char- 
acter. It  is  beantifnl  to  see  the  pride  of  the  province  of  Oriental 
Negros  in  the  institution  and  the  good  will  of  the  insular  edu- 
cational authoiuties  toward  it.  One  of  the  most  inspiring  meet- 
ings that  we  have  attended  on  this  trip  was  held  in  the  great 
hall  of  the  Institute  last  Wednesday  morning.  Five  hundred 
students  from  the  juiblic  high  school  and  lower  grades  marche<l 
in  a body  from  their  own  buildings  at  the  other  end  of  the  town. 
All  the  leading  officials  of  the  province  came,  the  gf)vernor,  the 
ex-governor,  the  treasurer  and  the  three  members  of  the  pro- 
vincial board,  the  member  of  the  assembly,  the  local  judge  and 
the  land  holders  who  from  the  beginning  have  welcomed  the 
school  and  rejoiced  in  it.  Every  .spot  which  the.se  visitors  did 
not  occupy  and  on  which  a Silliman  boy  could  stand,  was  crowd- 
ed. To  look  out  on  this  sea  of  young,  eaniest,  ambitious  life, 
to  speak  to  it  in  English,  to  realize  that  every  word  was  under- 
stood, to  feel  the  thrill  of  all  the  po.ssibilities  latent  in  these  re- 
sponsive hearts,  was  to  realize,  as  Dr.  Silliman  and  Dr.  Ellin- 
wood  must  surely  realize  now  in  the  life  from  which  they  look 
down  upon  Dumaguete,  the  wisdom  and  far-sightedness  and  pat- 
riotism with  which  they  wrought  in  founding  this  center  of  life 
and  power  for  these  islands. 

The  public  schools  brought  with  them  to  this  mass  meeting, 
hundreds  of  bright  Filipino  girls,  but  when  they  were  gone  and 
the  Silliman  students  met  again  alone,  there  was  but  one  soli- 
tary girl  in  their  number,  one  who.  ambitious  for  a college  edu- 
cation. had  sought  and  gained  admission  to  the  Silliman  clas.'^es. 
It  was  a tribute  to  her  character  and  to  that  of  the  boys  that 
she  was  able  to  take  her  place  and  do  her  work  with  perfect 
tact  and  propriety.  Scores  of  other  girls  in  these  central  i.slands 
have  the  same  ambition.  Last  week  Dr.  Hibbard,  the  efficient 
and  trusted  head  of  the  school,  asked  how  mauy  boys  had  sisters 
who  were  anxious  to  come  to  a girls’  department,  and  was  an- 
swered by  sixty  who  instantly  raised  their  hands.  It  is  with  the 
hope  that  the  way  may  be  opened  for  their  daughters  to  come, 
that  many  of  the  fathers  are  giving  to  the  extension  fund.  There 
are  thirty  Chinese  boys  also  in  the  school,  representatives  of  the 
:10,000  Chinese  who  are  in  the  islands  and  who  constitute  the 
mercantile  class.  The  Christian  Church  has  been  able  to  do  but 
little  for  this  body  of  shrewd,  prosperous,  influential  men.  Who 
knows  but  that  through  these  Chinese  boys  at  Silliman.  the  right 
door  of  approach  may  be  found? 

This  eastern  half  of  the  Island  of  Negros  has  been  from  the 
beginning  hospitable  to  American  influence.  The  people  wel- 
comed the  American  Government  at  the  beginning  and  in  every 
part  of  the  province  the  evangelist  as  well  as  the  school  teacher 
has  had  a ready  access.  Some  of  the  Roman  Catholic  priests 
have  indeed  antagonized  the  public  schools  aud  here  and  there 
have  been  able  to  break  them  up  by  withdrawing  the  children. 
But  in  few  other  parts  of  the  islands  has  the  influence  of  the  old 

202 


church  been  as  Tveak  as  here.  In  the  town  of  Amblon  where  the 
people  have  built,  unaided,  a beautiful  evangelical  chapel,  the 
old  Eoman  Catholic  church  is  in  ruins.  In  the  revohitionary 
days  the  Filipino  people  rose  against  the  priests  and  drove  them 
out  and  burned  the  church.  In  Amblon  the  church  cannot  now 
raise  money  enough  to  re-roof  the  still  standing  walls  of  the 
great  building,  but  the  people  of  the  town  have  given  some  thou- 
sands of  pesos  for  the  fund  for  the  enlarging  of  Silliman  Insti- 
tute. A few  miles  north  in  the  village  of  Polo  we  found  no  Ro- 
man Catholic  church  at  all,  but  an  evangelical  chapel,  neatly 
decorated,  built  by  the  people  themselves,  stood  in  the  midst  of 
the  rather  doleful  little  village,  testifying  to  the  gratitude  of 
the  leading  man  in  the  village  who  had  been  delivered  from  the 
bondage  of  the  opium  habit  and  who,  as  the  evening  shadows 
gathered  in  aboiit  his  life,  had  come  while  we  were  in  Duma- 
guete,  to  meet  the  end,  which  he  did  not  fear,  in  the  Christian 
peace  of  I)r.  Langheim’s  spotless  hospital.  Just  north  of  Polo 
al.so  we  visited  the  church  in  Tanjay.  It  faced  the  old  and  dig- 
nified, but  dilapidated  Roman  Catholic  church,  the  oldest  church 
in  the  province.  The  Prote.stant  church  had  been  blown  down 
by  a storm  two  years  ago,  but  its  people  with  their  own  resources 
were  rebuilding  it  and  were  setting  it  just  where  it  had  stood, 
confronting  with  its  active,  happy  life,  the  great  and  somber 
building  of  the  old  church.  On  our  way  home  from  visits  to 
llie.se  chapels,  which  cheered  our  hearts  and  in  which  we  sought 
lo  cheer  the  hearts  of  others,  we  jiassed,  just  before  reacliing 
Dnmaguete,  through  the  village  of  Sibulan  with  its  little  chapel 
conducted  by  its  leading  elder  who  is  also  the  president  of  the 
village  and  who  with  his  wife,  at  their  own  charges,  studied  last 
year  in  the  theological  school  of  the  mission  at  ]\Ianila,  that  they 
might  be  better  fitted  to  teach  the  living  gospel. 

Five  ordained  Filijiino  pastors  are  working  in  this  province, 
one  of  them  with  a church  of  nearly  a thousand  members  and 
another  with  a church  of  over  five  hundred.  In  addition  to  these 
yiastors,  there  are  twelve  elders  and  five  evangelists,  several  of 
them  supported  by  the  churches. 

Our  week  here  in  Dnmagnete  and  the  surrounding  field  has 
been  a week  of  unalloyed  delight  and  inspiration.  We  are  on 
onr  way  now  across  a blue  and  rippling  sea  from  Dumaguete  to 
the  island  of  Rohol  to  visit  the  station  of  Tagbilaran.  The  white 
clouds  are  resting  on  the  Ilnnis  of  Negros,  the  noble  mountain 
peaks  that  lie  behind  Dnmagnete.  The  palm  trees  and  the  flag 
waving  over  the  school,  have  faded  out  of  sight  and  with  them 
the  .seven  hundred  Silliman  boys  who  crowded  down  to  the  beach 
to  cheer  us  oH'  and  the  little  band  of  American  men  and  women 
who  are  putting  their  lives  into  these  young  and  plastic  lives 
which  God  has  given  to  them.  Now  while  the  memory  of  it  all 
is  fre.sh  and  vivid  with  us,  we  want  to  report  these  impressions 
and  to  bear  tribute  to  the  devotion  and  the  efficiency  and  the 
Ghristlike  love  of  this  little  group  of  missionaries,  carrjung  each 

203 


of  them  double  or  trelde  burdens  and  pouring  the  verA"  blood  of 
their  souls  through  this  school  into  the  life  of  these  islands. 


R.  E.  S. 


(3)  ON  THE  CO.AST  OF  BOHOL:  TAOBILARA.V 

August  7.  191.5. 

Boliol  is  one  of  the  smaller  of  the  large  islands  of  the  Visayan 
grou])  of  the  Phili])j)ines,  and  Tagbilaran  on  the  southwestern 
corner  of  the  island,  and  its  capital,  is  the  home  of  the  thm* 
missionaries.  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Graham  and  Miss  Barnett,  who  are 
responsible  for  the  evangelization  of  its  275,000  people.  We 
crossed  to  Tagbilaran  from  Dumaguete,  forty  miles  away,  over 
pleasant  seas,  and  are  on  our  way  now  from  Tagbilaran  to  Cebu, 
forty  miles  to  the  north  where  the  missionaries  live  who  are 
seeking  to  reach  the  750,000  people  of  the  Island  of  Cebu. 

The  poj)ulation  of  Bohol  is  in  villages  around  the  edge  of  the 
i.sland  or  only  a little  distance  inland.  They  were  held  here  in 
the  old  days  by  the  influence  of  the  church  whose  parishes, 
scattered  along  the  seashore,  .sought  to  keej)  the  people  near  at 
hand  and  discouraged  the  development  of  the  interior.  Depen- 
dent upon  the  ])recarious  fortunes  of  the  fisherman,  the  people 
of  the  island  have  laggefl  behind  those  of  other  sections  of  the 
Philip])iues,  but  the  government  is  now  building  good  roads  into 
the  interior  and  encouraging  the  development  of  its  ample  agri- 
cultural resources,  and  the  ambitions  of  the  people  have  awak- 
ened. Ten  per  cent,  of  the  entire  poj)ulation  is  now  found  in 
the  ])ublic  schools  of  the  island.  The  people  have  been  free 
from  fruitless  political  agitation.  And  far  and  wide  over  the 
province,  which  embraces  the  whole  island,  various  influences 
have  scattered  those  good  see<ls  of  the  Kingdom  which  germinate 
and  bear  fruit  wherever  they  fall.  In  fourteen  different  centers 
there  are  now  groups  of  evangelical  l)elievers  gathered.  We  met 
with  rej)resentatives  of  a number  of  these  congregations  and 
nothing  could  have  been  more  natural  and  at  the  same  time  more 
su])ernatural,  than  the  ways  in  which  the  gospel  had  been  brought 
and  taken  rootage.  The  most  northwesterly  congregation  had 
grown  out  of  the  work  of  a man  who  had  gone  to  the  medical 
missionary  then  in  Cebu  to  get  a piece  of  steel  removed  from 
his  e\e  and  who  after  he  had  .secured  relief,  lingered  about  watch- 
ing  the  missionary  and  studying  the  religious  teaching  which  he 
had  brought.  Convinced  of  its  truth,  and  with  a per.sonal  ex- 
perience of  its  love,  he  came  back  to  spread  Christian  literature 
and  to  gather  a group  of  believers.  In  the  northeasterly  corner 
of  the  island,  the  congregation  had  grown  out  of  the  work  of  a 
man  and  woman  who  had  come  at  Dr.  Graham’s  suggestion  to 
live  in  the  open  air  under  a mango  tree  near  the  woman’s  old 
home  in  the  hope  that  she  might  throw  off  an  incipient  tubercu- 
losis. In  still  another  center  the  church  had  grown  from  a be- 
ginning with  one  man  who  thirty-eight  years  ago  heard  the 

204 


gospel  in  Singapore,  who  had  been  a friend  of  Rizal,  the  Fil- 
ipino patriot  in  Manila  in  tlie  days  before  there  wnis  any  j-elig- 
ions  liberty,  and  wlio  with  the  American  occupation  heard  the 
gospel  once  again  and  l>elieved.  At  Autoqnera  the  gospel  had 
been  brought  in  by  young  men  who  were  peddlers  and  who  ob- 
tained New  Testaments  in  their  wanderings.  And  so  in  ju.st 
the  natural  ways  in  which  human  influence  always  .spreads,  the 
truth  of  the  gospel  had  gone  abroad,  and  in  the  supernatm“al 
way  that  is  characteiastic  of  it,  had  genninated  and  borne  living 
fruitage. 

One  of  the  things  which,  at  the  beginning,  obstructed  the  go.s- 
pel  most,  has  in  the  end,  turned  out  to  its  furtherance.  In  The 
old  days  all  the  cemeteries  were  under  the  control  of  the  Roman 
Catholic  church  which  could  deny  burial  in  them  to  any  who 
ignored  her  authority.  And  one  of  the  things  which  was  most 
effective  in  deterring  men  from  joining  the  evangelical  church, 
was  the  dread  that  they  or  their  families  might  be  denied  burial. 
At  Anto(piera  a man  who  had  been  converted  in  the  mission 
hospital  was  refu.sed  burial  for  his  little  child  by  the  church. 
When  he  aj)plie<l  in  the  neighboring  parish  of  Cortiz  he  was 
refu.sed  there  also.  The  father,  accordingly,  buried  his  little 
one  in  his  own  garden  and  as  this  was  against  the  law,  came  to 
Tagbilaran  and  reitorted  what  he  had  done  to  the  sanitary  otli- 
cer.  Dr.  Graham  .saw  that  the  matter  did  not  stop  there  but 
was  reported  to  ^lanila  with  the  result  that  an  official  investi- 
gator was  sent  down  and  that  ultimately  i)roclamations  were 
i.ssued  by  the  Governor  General  of  the  Islands  to  be  j)oste<l 
throughout  Rohol  announcing  that  burial  should  be  refused  to 
no  one  and  that  municipal  cemeteries  must  be  opened  wherever 
they  were  re(piired.  The  new  proclamation  was  recognized  far 
ami  wide  as  a triuni])h  of  the  i)eople  over  j)riestly  domination 
and  one  great  okstruction  to  the  j)rogress  of  fit*e  religious  in- 
(piiry  was  shattered.  A burial  j)lace  for  one's  dead  has  never 
been  deemed,  by  tho.s<*  who  mourned,  a ti-ifling  affair  and  even 
so  obvious  an  act  of  justice  as  this  of  the  government  meant  the 
introduction  of  a new  and  revolutionary  princij)le  in  Rohol. 

Dr.  ami  Mrs.  Graham  have  won  a wanu  place  in  the  confi- 
dence and  affection  of  the  community.  When  they  returned  from 
their  recent  furlough  the  whole  community  welcomed  them  and 
the  I’rovincial  Board,  the  ])olitical  administrative  bo<ly  of  the 
island,  j)as.sed  the  following  resolution  which  the  Governor  trans- 
mitte<l  to  Dr.  Graham:  “Whereas.  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Jas.  A.  Graham 
have  returne<l  to  this  island  after  an  absence  of  over  a yejtr  in 
Europe  and  America,  and  whereas  not  only  all  the  members  of 
this  board  but  all  the  j)eoi)le  of  this  j)roviuce  fully  recognize  and 
highly  api)reciate  the  me<lical  .services  rendered  l)y  the  said  Dr. 
and  Mr.s.  Graham  in  this  ju-ovince  during  the  ]>ast  five  years, 
now  therefore  be  it  on  motion  of  tbe  l*rovincial  Governor  re- 
solved that  this  Rrovincial  Board,  representing  the  peo]tle  of 
the  ju'ovince  of  Bohol,  hereby  cordially  welcome  the  newcomers, 

205 


wishing  them  continued  success  and  happiness.”  And  just  be- 
fore we  arrived  the  P’ilij)ino  company  controlling  the  automo- 
bile trans])ortation  of  tlie  island  had  sent  Dr.  Graham  a free 
pass  for  use  on  its  cars. 

The  mission  chapel  was  j)acked  to  the  walls,  and  the  windows 
and  front  door  away  out  1o  the  middle  of  the  road  were  crowde^l 
with  listeners  at  the  evening  meeting  during  our  visit.  The  Gov- 
ernor, the  school  teachers,  the  leading  men  and  women  of  the 
community,  were  present  and  Ihe  evening  bell  from  the  beauti- 
fully ])ictures<pie  old  Koman  church  on  Ihe  bluff  overlooking  the 
bay,  called  none  of  the  audience  away.  If  ever  there  was  an 
ojjen  door  for  the  gos]>el  in  any  laud,  it  is  in  the  Philipj>ine 
Islands  today. 

We  asked  a group  of  the  Christians  who  had  come  in  from 
the  different  congregations  what  it  was  in  Christ  and  His  gos- 
pel which  gave  them  most  joy.  “It  is  the  Holy  Spirit  Who  gives 
me  most  joy,”  .said  one,  “and  the  .study  of  the  Bible  that  ex- 
plains to  me  this  doctrine  of  the  Holy  Spirit.”  “My  joy,”  said 
another,  “is  the  liberty  of  each  soul  to  find  the  truth.”  “Mine,” 
.said  another,  “is  the  happiness  of  sharing  the  wealth  of  the  gos- 
pel with  others.”  “Mine,”  said  a fourth,  “is  the  thought  of  the 
mercy  and  j)ity  and  love  which  God  has  toward  all  who  are  in 
need.”  “Mine,”  said  a fifth,  “is  that  Christ  is  the  Morning  Star 
who  has  come  down  to  us  so  that  we  may  walk  in  His  light.” 
“And  mine,”  said  a gentle  woman,  in  her  quaint,  fresh  drass,  “is 
to  know  that  the  only  law  that  we  must  obey  is  the  law  of  Christ. 
My  happiness  from  now  on  to  the  end  of  life,  is  that  I may 
follow  Christ  and  that  though  there  are  foes  and  temptations 
around,  they  cannot  destroy  our  faith  with  whom  Christ  walks 
always.  It  is  the  joy  and  duty  of  those  who  know  this  to  tell  it 
to  others.”  It  is  indeed. 

R.  E.  S. 

(4)  CHRIST  IX  CEBU 

August  11,  1915. 

The  Island  of  Cebu  is  one  of  the  most  populous  though  not 
most  pro.sperous  islands  of  all  the  Philippines.  In  the  old  times 
it  was  one  of  the  most  lawless  and  disorderly,  and  its  mountain 
valleys  were  hotbeds  of  insurrection  in  the  early  days  of  the 
American  occupation.  Now  it  is  one  of  the  most  tranquil, 
happy,  well-contented,  of  all  the  provinces.  It  has  suffered  from 
drought  and  famine  and  grass  hopper  plagues,  but  the  good  gov- 
ernment and  complete  suppression  of  brigandage,  the  increase 
of  the  cultivated  areas,  the  security  of  the  people  in  the  imsses- 
.sion  and  enjoyment  of  their  crops,  the  development  of  beautiful 
roads,  the  opening  of  a railroad  running  a good  part  of  the 
length  of  the  island,  the  increase  of  enlightenment  and  the 
growth  of  true  religion,  have  been  some  of  the  influences  which 
have  spread  a spirit  of  peace  and  happiness  throughout  the 
island. 


206 


Not  far  from  the  fine  new  docks  which  the  government  has 
bnilt,  and  in  the  midst  of  one  of  the  principal  streets,  stands  an 
old  black  cross  roofed  over  and  walled  about,  marking  Ihe  s])o1 
on  which  the  first  mass  was  celebrated  in  the  Philippine  Islands. 
Nearby  is  the  chnrcli  of  Santo  Nino,  a little  wooden  doll  repre- 
senting the  Lord  Jesus,  whose  worship  calls  forth  the  deepest 
devotion  of  the  diminished  company  which  adheres  to  the  old 
church.  Not  far  beyond  is  the  oldest  street  in  the  Philippine 
Islands,  with  the  low,  ponderous  buildings  still  standing  which 
the  Spaniards  built  four  centuries  ago.  Across  a little  strait, 
a gun-shot  from  the  land,  is  the  smaller  island  of  Mactan  where 
Magellan  was  slain  on  the  most  distant  of  all  his  voyages.  These 
are  the  memories  of  times  gone  by  forever.  It  is  not  a wooden 
cross  or  a tinseled  decorated  doll,  nor  the  massive  walls  of  anci- 
ent conquerors,  nor  adventurers’  graves,  which  are  moulding 
Cebu  today,  hut  the  living  forces  of  truth  and  freedom. 

And  if  any  American  thinks  meanly  of  his  country  or  doubts 
the  value  of  the  work  it  has  done  in  the  Philipijines,  I wish  that 
he  could  have  made  this  visit  to  Cebu  with  us.  Whatever  view 
men  may  take  of  the  wisdom  of  our  having  come  here  in  the  first 
place  or  of  the  course  which  we  should  ])ursue  in  the  future, 
they  could  not  visit  the  Island  of  Cebu  without  an  overwhelming 
realization  of  the  beneficence  of  the  work  which  onr  nation  has 
done  here.  Apart  from  all  the  material  benefits  which  have  been 
brought  to  the  peoi)le,  the  evidence  of  which  is  wi-itten  all  over 
the  island  in  improved  homes,  better  dress,  increased  pros])ei‘- 
ity,  there  are  the  unmistakable  signs  everywhere  of  a free  and 
intelligent  si>irit  and  enterprise,  a confidence,  a cheerful  and 
friendly  equality  of  manhood  such  as  make  the  whole  atmos- 
j)here  of  life  here  as  difierent  from  the  atmosphere  which  w(* 
found  in  Siam  as  day  from  night. 

Such  a visit  as  this  to  Cebu  is  a tonic  to  missionary  faith  also. 
If  there  is  any  member  of  the  East  Liberty  Church  in  Pitts- 
burgh, which  has  the  privilege  of  calling  this  Cehn  station  its 
own,  who  doubts  the  value  of  the  work  which  his  church  has 
been  doing  here,  all  he  needs  to  do  is  to  come  and  see.  Tin* 
mi.ssion  conij)Ound,  bought  with  much  fore.sight  in  the  early 
year.s,  is  the  best  mi.ssion  compound  we  have  seen  in  the  islands. 
Strips  sold  oil  the  original  purchase,  have  reimbursed  the  mis- 
sion for  the  cost  of  the  whole  piece  of  land,  which  now  stands 
in  the  most  desirable  section  of  the  city.  At  either  end  are  dor- 
mitories, one  for  boys  and  one  for  girls,  coming  up  from  distant 
places  to  attend  the  provincial  high  school.  Just  hack  of  them 
are  mission  residences,  and  in  the  center  of  the  whole  is  the 
beautiful  little  church  built  in  memory  of  Mrs.  Bradford  of 
New  York  city.  All  the  buildings  are  of  iiniforni  architecture, 
built  of  concrete  and  admirably  suited  to  the  conditions.  From 
nine  different  jn-ovinces  boys  and  girls  have  come  up  to  these 
dormitories,  and  going  home  their  friendship  has  opened  com- 
munity after  community  heretofore  inaccessible.  Dr.  Diinlap’s 

207 


athletic  leadership  and  personal  popularity  have  ca[*tnre<l  the 
young  men  of  the  coinnmnity,  while  Miss  Heywang  with  her  un- 
usual musical  gifts,  has  begun  a similar  work  for  the  gii-ls. 

Mr.  Jansen  In^gan  the  itinerating  work  of  the  station  many 
years  ago  in  the  insurrecto  days  and  the  congregations  which 
grew  up  are  scattered  from  one  end  of  the  long  island  to  the 
other.  One  day  of  our  vi.sit  was  spent  back  in  the  mountains 
with  one  of  the  hill  country  congregations.  Our  only  regret  was 
that  we  could  not  have  had  with  us  ever}’  mLssionary  worker 
from  the  church  at  home  and  a host  of  those  people  who  do  not 
believe  in  ini.ssions  but  who  would  have  believed  if  they  had  l>een 
there  that  day.  The  beautiful  little  chapel  which  the  people 
had  built  unaided  was  on  a high  hill  looking  out  across  the  hill- 
tops to  the  distant  .sea.  The  .scorching  midsummer  tropical  .sun 
was  forgotten  amid  the  delicious  breezes  that  blew  unceasingly 
through  the  wide-open  windows  of  the  chapel.  It  was  a week- 
day but  the  peoi)le  had  left  their  work  and  come  from  their  lit- 
tle farms  .scattered  among  the  hills,  the  men,  women  and  chil- 
dren all  together.  Ten  years  ago  these  people,  half  fed.  culti- 
vating only  little  j)atches  of  ground,  and  dressed  in  rags  and 
naked  to  the  waist,  were  dwelling  on  the  edge  of  life.  Now, 
with  the  country  at  peace,  and  sure  of  their  property,  they  are 
cultivating  eight  or  ten  times  the  .soil  they  formerly  cultivate<l, 
and  none  of  our  Sunday  congregations  at  home  could  appear 
with  more  dignity  and  propriety  or  look  more  attractive  than 
this  congregation  at  Cabangahan.  We  had  meetings  all  morn- 
ing and  afternoon  and  nowhere  at  home  would  one  find  more 
eager,  responsive  listeners  than  these  were  or  hearts  that  an- 
swered with  more  overflowing  joy  to  the  appeal  of  Christian 
faith  and  love.  Missionary  unbelief  or  indifference  is  simply 
impossible  to  one  who  has  seen  the  reality  of  the  work  as  we 
have  seen  it  amid  such  true  and  simple-hearted  Christians  as 
these. 

Six  congregations  on  the  west  coast  of  the  i.sland  are  due  to 
the  work  of  one  earnest,  volunteer  evangelist.  Mr.  Jansen  asked 
one  of  the  men  reached  by  him  what  it  was  that  had  convinced 
him,  “Oh,”  said  he,  “there  was  a ring  to  what  that  evangelist 
said  that  no  one  could  mistake.  What  he  said  moved  me  into 
God.  After  he  had  spoken  for  a time  to  us,  he  said,  “Now,  1 
cannot  talk  any  more,  I must  pray.’  I watched  him  as  he  pray- 
ed. The  tears  rained  down  his  cheeks.  I had  never  heard  any- 
thing like  his  prayer  before.  It  lifted  me  right  up  to  God.” 
Words  and  ideas  like  these  require  a background  and  where  that 
background  is  morally  authenticated,  missionary  sceptici.sm  be- 
comes an  absurdity. 

Our  last  morning  at  Cebu  a man  and  woman  came  up  to  Mr. 
Jansen’s  porch  and  were  recognized  with  joy.  They  had  l>een 
leaders  in  the  Christian  work  in  the  8an  Nicholas  section  of 
Cebu  but  had  gone  with  a large  emigration  of  Christians  south 
to  Mindanao.  They  had  brought  a cargo  of  hemp  to  Cebu  and 

208 


had  come  now  to  ask  for  a Christian  pastor  to  take  back  to 
Mindanao.  They  hoped  to  persuade  the  presidente,  or  mayor, 
of  Sibnlan,  near  Dnmagnete,  wlio,  as  elder,  and  at  his  own 
charg-es,  condncis  tlie  little  chnrcli  lliere,  to  go  back  with  them. 
They  represented  only  one  of  a iinmbei-  of  new  Christian  com- 
munities which  had  grown  nj)  as  a result  of  the  migration  of 
Christians  from  drongiit-smitten  sections  of  Cebu. 

Already  in  this  Island  of  Cebu  more  evangelical  believers  have 
been  gathered  in  fifteen  years  than  we  have  now  in  all  onr 
churches  in  lower  Siam.  There  mental  torpor  and  spiritual  in- 
ertia, the  deadly  lethargy  of  Buddhism,  social  immobility,  have 
almost,  dead-locked  the  growth  of  the  church,  but  here,  a new 
spirit  of  freedom  is  breathing  across  the  hearts  of  the  people, 
religions  ideas  taught  by  the  priests,  but  hindered  of  their  fruit- 
age, are  fructifying  under  the  living  contact  of  the  gospel.  Ade- 
(piate  work  done  now  in  the  power  of  the  living  spirit  and  the 
enei’gy  of  love  and  prayer  may  easily  extend  what  has  been  so 
well  begun  until  these  islands  and  their  people,  which  God  made 
for  hai)])iness  and  j)eace,  are  filled  with  the  gospel  of  truth  and 

joy- 

B.  E.  S. 

(.5)  ON  THE  ISE.VNI)  OE  LEYTE:  TACLOB.\N 

* August  13,  1915. 

It  is  ea.sy  to  learn  the  names  of  the  main  i.slands  of  the  Phil- 
ippines and  to  ])icture  to  ones’  .self  their  general  geographical  re- 
lationshij).  At  the  north  ami  tlie  south  are  the  two  largest 
island.s,  Luzon  and  Mindanao.  And  it  is  interesting  to  hear  al- 
most everyone  who  knows  these  islands  comi)aratively,  speak 
with  chief  enthu.siasm  about  Mindanao  as  the  greatest  and  most 
attractive  and  vahiable  of  them  all.  ]\Iany  emigrants  are  going 
.south  to  it  from  other  islands  such  as  Cebu.  Though  the  .south- 
ernmo.st  of  the  important  islands  it  is  declared  to  have  the  most 
salubrious  and  ])leasant  climate  of  all  and  to  be  better  adapted 
to  occnj)ation  and  development  by  white  men  than  any  other  of 
the  islands.  Between  Luzon  and  ^lindanao  in  a row  stretching 
from  west  to  east  are  the  Islands  of  Panay,  Negros,  Cebu,  Bohol, 
Leyte,  and  Samar.  The  Si)aniai(ls  discovered  them  from  east 
to  west,  but  in  their  ju-esent  develo])iuent  and  commercial  ex- 
pansion they  can  be  ranged  roughly  in  the  contrary  order.  As 
yet,  akso,  there  is  no  Protestant  missionary  work  on  Samai'  and 
we  have  .seen  on  the  visit  to  the  island  which  we  have  just  com- 
pleted, how  much  harder  and  slower  our  work  in  Leyte  has  been 
than  on  (’ebu  and  Negros  and  Panay. 

Leyte  ought  to  be  a far  more  j)i-osperons  island  than  Cebu 
whose  ])oi)ulation  of  T.50,0()(»  is  half  again  larger  than  the  i)o])u- 
lation  of  l^eyte.  The  soil  of  Leyte  is  more  fertile.  Abundant 
crops  grow  almost  of  themselves  where  i)atient  industry  in  Cebu 
must  struggle  with  the  soil  and  the  hillsides,  which  the  indus- 
trious Cebuans  cultivate  to  the  very  crest,  while  broad  reaches 

209 


of  the  wide  plains  of  Leyte  lie  untilled.  These  two  islands  ly- 
in"  side  by  side  furnish  a striking  illustration  of  the  truth  that 
the  ha]»j)iness  and  j»rosperity  of  people  <h»  not  always  dejiend 
upon  their  material  resoni’ces  or  the  ease  with  which  they  can 
make  a livelihood. 

In  Leyte,  as  in  Eohol,  however,  the  new  tides  of  life  are  stir- 
ring. Between  eight  and  nine  hundi-ed  boys  and  girls  have 
poured  uji  from  all  over  the  province  to  the  provincial  high  and 
intermediate  school  in  Tacloban  and  over  two  hundred  more  have 
come  up  to  the  trades  school.  The  province  claims  more  first- 
class  school  buildings  than  any  other  i)rovince  and  l>etween  a 
third  and  a half  of  all  its  children  of  school  age  are  in  ‘school. 
Ten  evangelical  congregations  have  .sprung  up  along  the  whole 
length  of  the  island  and  the  work  in  the  provincial  capital 
among  the  high  school  pupils  is  scattering,  as  it  is  in  everw  pro- 
vince where  we  have  missionarie.s,  ati  intelligent  and  sympa- 
thetic interest  in  the  Bible  and  the  Christianity  of  the  Bible 
through  all  the  municipalities  and  out  into  many  of  the  barrios, 
or  villages,  of  the  province. 

The  happy  arrangements  of  missionaiw  comity  which  prevail 
in  the  IMiilii)pine  Islands,  have  assigned  the  Islands  of  Leyte, 
Bohol  and  Cebu  and  one-half  of  Negros  and  less  than  a half  of 
Panay  to  the  I*re.sbyterian  missionaries.  The  missionaries  have 
wisely  gone  straight  to  the  capital  of  each  ]»rbvince  and  wherever 
they  have  been  able  to  do  so,  have  built  iip  a central  church  and 
either  a ho.«pital  for  the  sick  or  a dormitory  for  high  school 
students  or  both.  In  Tacloban  there  is  opportunity  and  need 
for  all  of  the.se.  Only  the  church,  however,  has  been  completed 
as  yet.  The  hosjiital  is  to  come  next  and  no  could  see  Dr.  Mill- 
er’s clinic  without  appreciating  the  necessity  for  it.  The  wait- 
ing patients  were  i^acked  together  on  the  front  porch  of  his 
house.  Some  of  them  were  cared  for  there  while  others  were  led 
through  the  living  room  into  the  dispensary  and  operating  room 
adjoining  the  doctor's  bedroom.  Under  the  hou.se.  one  large 
room  was  filled  in  part  with  i>atients,  in  part  with  high  school 
boj’S  using  the  room  as  a dormitory.  A specially  serious  case 
was  cared  for  in  a tem])orary  room  boarded  in  under  the  front 
stej)s.  For  a year  this  has  been  going  on,  with  Dr.  and  Mrs. 
Miller  so  happy  in  the  midst  of  this  daily  invasion  of  their 
home  by  suffering  and  disea.se  that  they  have  begun  to  wonder 
if  they  can  be  happy  at  all  with  a new  hospital  and  a physician's 
residence  detached  from  it  such  as  they  hope  ere  long  to  begin 
with  such  funds  as  are  now  available. 

Dr.  Miller  and  Mr.  Rath,  his  ministerial  associate  in  the  work 
in  Leyte,  who  did  much  of  the  ])ioneering  work  in  the  field,  have 
met  from  the  outset  more  than  the  usual  prejudice  and  oppo- 
sition. Even  yet  there  is  no  municipal  cemetery  in  the  city 
releasing  the  people  from  the  petty  tyranny  which  the  old  church 
exercised  through  the  control  of  the  burial  soil.  The  foolish 
things  common  in  South  America  and  in  the  earlier  years  here, 

210 


such  as  jeers'  on  the  street  at  Protestants,  and  stones  on  the 
chapel  roof,  are  still  met  with  in  Tacloban.  But  all  this  is 
wearing  away.  One  of  the  very  priests  who  still  publicly  warns 
his  people  against  the  Protestant  doctor  is  privately  the  Protest- 
ant doctor’s  patient.  And  the  old  blindness  and  bigotry  are 
gone  forever  from  the  minds  of  tlie  eager  and  responsive  boys 
and  girls  who,  aAvay  from  their  Iiomes,  many  of  them  living  in 
lonely  little  groups  in  cheap  boarding  places  throughout  the 
town,  are  wide  open  to  friendship  and  interested  in  all  that  they 
hear  wlien  they  come  to  the  evangelical  church.  Mr.  Rath,  avIio 
is  at  liome  on  furlough  now,  will,  I think,  tind  an  appreciable 
ditference  in  the  sentiment  of  the  people  when  he  retiirns.  Dr. 
Miller  .says  that  often  now  as  he  goes  to  and  fro  on  the  country 
roads  on  his  motor  cycle,  the  peoj>le  will  come  running  out  from 
the  houses  to  flag  him  with  the  American  flag  and  invite  him  in. 
Genial  good  will  and  hearts  that  know  no  limit  of  sympathy" 
and  stop  at  no  trouble  are  doing  here  in  Leyte  just  what  they 
cannot  be  prevented  from  doing  anywhere  on  earth. 

Those  who  believe  that  the  Roman  Catholic  church  is  the 
mo.st  efficient  and  best  administered  organization  in  the  world 
will  be  disillusioned  here  if  they  are  not  nearer  home.  The  policy 
of  the  church  in  these  islands  has  been  one  long  series  of  blun- 
ders and  the  conditions  which  j)revail  in  most  of  the  Roman 
Catholic  parishes  here  are  such  as  would  not  Im  tolerated  for  a 
day  at  home  either  by  that  church  or  by  any  of  our  evangelical 
bodies.  Tacloban  is  siipj)o.sed  to  be  a strong  Catholic  center  but 
its  great  church,  unroofed  by  a ty])hoon  several  years  ago,  is 
still  only  a sorrowful  and  (lilai)idated  shell.  A few  thousand 
dollars  would  restore  it.  Part  of  the  iiiflueuce  which  the  church 
has  inherited,  it  still  po.s.se.s.ses,  but  only  part  and  it  is  displaying 
in  the  community  not  one  adaptation  to  new  conditions  nor  one 
outputting  of  vital  energy. 

Here,  as  everywhere,  Ave  have  seen  the  clean  and  ellicient  Avork 
Avhich  the  American  Goverumeut  has  done  for  the  benefit  of  the 
Philippine  Islands,  good  roads  kept  in  excellent  oi-der,  ellicient 
schools  croAvded  to  the  dooi-s  by  I he  young  life  of  the  islands, 
courts  Avith  honest  and  capable  judges,  lawennes  faithfully  hand- 
led and  Avi.sely  s])ent.  Services  like  these  i)enetrate  deej)  but 
they  cannot  j)enetrale  d(M‘ply  enough.  Something  moi-e  is  needed 
in  the  regeneration  and  mastery  of  life  Avhich  only  -lesns  Christ 
can  su])i)ly.  But  Avhat  can  supply  Iliiii?  We  knoAV,  because  Ave 
liav'e  .seen,  across  the  Avhole  Avi(lth  of  the  Visayas  from  Iloilo  to 
Tacloban.  the  men  and  women  in  Avhom  lie  is  at  Avork,  giving 
himself  to  men  through  their  gift  of  themselves  to  Him. 

R.  E.  S. 

(tl)  IX  SOUTHERN  LUZON 

S.  S.  “China,” 
Sept.  4,  1915. 

I have  seen  few  jilaces  more  beautiful  than  the  BaA"  of  Albay 
at  the  southeast  corner  of  the  Island  of  Luzon.  EastAvard  stretch 

211 


tlie  great  waters  of  the  Pacific.  Westward  are  tlie  green  hills  of 
Sorsogoii.  Xortliward  at  the  head  of  the  long.  Idiie  hay  rises 
the  almost  jierfect  volcanic  cone  of  Mayoii.  eiglil  tlionsand  feet 
high,  (doiidless  in  the  early  morning  as  we  sailed  up  the  hay. 
Imt  later  wreathed  hy  the  soft  southw(*st  monsoon  with  a crown 
of  creamy  white  clomls.  Around  its  base  in  the  midst  of  great 
jilantat ions  of  hem]),  varied  with  cocoannt  and  hanana  groves 
and  rice  fields,  lie  the  towns  and  villages,  the  mnnicipios  and 
barrios,  as  they  would  he  called  in  the  Philippine.s,  which  con- 
stitute the  field  of  the  mission  station  of  Alhay. 

This  is  the  special  mission  field  of  the  churches  of  the  Presby- 
tery of  Milwaukee  and  if  they  could  only  se(^  their  field  and 
their  two  tireless  missionaries,  the  Kev.  Hoy  H.  Brown  and  Mi-s. 
Brown,  at  work  in  it  they  would  rejoice  in  the  ])rivilege  which 
has  been  given  to  them  and  would  multiply  the  generous  support 
which  they  have  already  given  in  order  that  the  urgent  need  of 
this  open  and  responsive  field  may  be  met.  Mr.  Brown  is  alone 
in  charge  of  the  work  in  the  two  provinces,  Alhay  with  a jmpula- 
tion  of  :}.')0,0<)(),  and  of  Sorsogon  with  a ])opulation  of  1,jO,000. 
Two  ordained  Filipions  ministers  and  three  evangelists  are  work- 
ing with  him  in  the  eight  congregations  of  Albay  and  the  seven 
of  Sorsogon  and  their  fifteen  Sunday-.schools. 

We  visited  the  congregations  at  three  of  the  mnnicipios  out- 
side of  Albat'.  At  Guinabatan  it  was  the  annual  Sunday  fiesta 
of  the  saint  of  the  Boman  Gatholic  church  of  the  town^  and  the 
jieople  ill  their  best  clothes  were  gathered  as  at  a country  fair 
at  home.  On  the  wall  of  the  church  beside  the  door  through 
which  the  worshiiipers  were  going  in  and  out  a photographer 
had  hung  up  a black  sheet  against  which  he  was  taking  por- 
traits. Ill  the  s(]uare  in  front  of  the  church  a girls’  base  ball 
game  was  going  on  before  an  enthusiastic  crowd  which  divided 
its  interest  between  the  game  and  the  efforts  of  various  com- 
])etitors  to  bite  off  the  coins  which  had  lieen  glued  to  the  bottom 
of  a big  frying  pan,  blackened  and  greased  on  the  inside,  and 
hung  from  a rope  between  two  trees.  It  was  a strong  contrast 
that  was  presented  to  us  when  we  turned  from  all  this  innocent 
but  noil-religious  revelry  with  a church  as  its  center,  to  go  in 
to  the  neat  and  simple  chapel  built  by  the  people  themselves  and 
filled  with  quiet  and  intelligent  worshippers  reading  their  Bibles 
and  singing  their  hymns  with  no  less  hap])iness  in  their  hearts 
than  the  revellers  in  the  old  church  and  in  the  village  square, 
but  with  a quite  different  conce])tioii  of  religion  and  of  what  it 
is  that  gave  their  sainthood  to  the  saints  when  they  livetl  on 
earth  and  gives  them  joy  now  where  they  live  in  God.  A few 
days  later  on  a week-day  night  when  they  thought  it  would  be 
appropriate  the  church  at  Canialig  showed  that  even  though  they 
were  evangelicals  they  had  a fiesta  spirit,  too,  and  as  we  ap- 
proached their  church,  welcomed  us  with  the  full  tumult  of  the 
niunici])al  band  loaned  for  the  occasion  by  the  I’resideute  of  the 
town.  Where  the  people  had  any  warning  that  we  were  coming 

212 


they  would  pack  the  chapel  and  at  Pulangi  when  we  passed 
through  on  Satiirday  morning  and  people  could  come  only  at 
the  cost  of  breaking  up  the  day’s  work,  quite  a groiap  had  gath- 
ered including  a number  of  the  municipal  officials  and  women 
who  had  laid  aside  their  work  at  liome  or  in  the  fields  to  put  on 
their  best  clothes.  And  as  always,  tlie  children  were  present, 
among  them  this  time  two  little  girls  in  white  who  sang  in  Eng- 
lish, as  liundreds  of  thousands  of  cliildren  now  love  to  do 
throughout  tlie  islands,  and  wliat  tliey  sang  with  little  childish 
mispronounciations  that  went  straight  to  one’s  heart  was  “Some 
day  the  silver  cord  will  break,”  with  its  refrain,  “And  I shall 
see  Him  face  to  face  and  tell  the  story  saved  by  Grace.” 

In  Albay  itself,  the  capital  of  the  ])r()viuce,  Mr  Brown  has  a 
range  of  work  which  opens  up  limitless  opportunity.  There  is 
a battalion  of  American  soldiers  here  without  a chaplain  and 
Mr.  Brown,  with  the  helj)  of  Lieutenant  Titus  and  his  wife,  is 
doing  a chaplain’s  work  with  them.  There  is  a Fili])ino  chnrch 
in  the  city  with  outreaching  missionary  efforts  in  Legaspi  and 
Deraga.  The  ])rovincial  high  school  is  in  Albay  and  here  hun- 
dreds of  earnest  boys  and  girls  come  u]>  from  all  over  the  ])ro- 
vince.  Through  a dormitory  soon  to  be  built,  ^Ir.  Brown  will 
strengthen  his  hold  n])on  these  res]»onsive  young  lives  with 
which  lies  the  future  of  these  Islands.  There  is  a little  Ameri- 
can community  also  to  be  sluqdierded,  personal  work  with  all 
clas.ses  of  peoj)le  to  be  done,  and  the  duties  of  an  apostle  and 
bishop  to  be  met  as  far  its  a modern  missionary  can  meet  them 
in  thes(‘  two  wide  provinces. 

Immediately  to  the  north  of  Albay  and  Soi-sogon  lies  the  pi-o- 
vince  of  the  Two  ('amarines.  Its  w(»rk,  intimately  a.ssociated 
with  Mr.  Brown’s,  is  now  nmler  the  care  of  the  Rev.  Kenneth 
McDonald  and  Mrs.  McDonald,  with  their  h(‘ad(]narters  in  Naga, 
which  is  also  the  great  center  of  administration  of  the  Roman 
(’atholic  church  in  the  sonthern  end  of  Luzon.  An  American 
bi.shoj)  is  resident  here,  with  schools,  an  old  cathedral  iindei'- 
going  renovation,  and  a chnrch  containing  a miracnlous  image* 
of  the  ^'il•gin  ^lary  about  a foot  and  a half  high  holding  a tiny 
baby  in  her  arms.  The  annual  fiesta  of  this  image  with  its  ])ro- 
c(*ssions  is  so  notable  and  even  notorious  that  if  is  said  the  bishop 
thus  far  has  found  his  dnli(*s  elsewhere  called  him  away  at  tlie 
time.  An  honest  and  eaniest  bishoji  in  these  islands  can  have  no 
sinecure.  With  the  friai-s’  orders  fighting  him  and  one  anothei-, 
with  the  inefiiciency  of  business  management  which  every  one 
acknowledges  in  the  church  in  the  islands,  and  with  the  steady 
growth  of  free  and  indei)(*ndent  thinking  among  the  people,  and 
with  a jiast  to  cai-ry,  by  no  means  einjity  of  good  but  heavy  also 
with  unwisdom  and  short-sightedness,  the  task  of  any  Roman 
(’atholic  administi-ator  in  the  Rliilijipine  Islands  is  not  enviable. 

Camai’ines  is  a large  ju-ovince  full  of  forests,  with  many  sec- 
tions unreached  as  yet  by  the  wonderful  system  of  roads  which 
the  American  administration  is  sjireadiTig  over  the  Islands. 

213 


Much  of  the  itinerating  has  still  to  be  done  on  foot  or  by  native 
boats,  but  by  itineration,  by  the  work  of  the  young  Filipino  evan- 
gelists, through  the  f)rovincial  high  school  in  Naga  and  the  boys 
who  have  come  up  to  the  school  and  whom  Mr.  McDonald  houses 
in  a dormitoiw  adjoining  his  home,  provided  through  Mr.  Flem- 
ing and  his  daugliter  of  Los  Angeles,  by  the  little  chapel  in  the 
lieart  of  Xaga  into  which  the  students  thronged,  and  the  doors 
and  windows  of  which  were  packed  with  outside  listeners  when 
we  were  there,  the  seed  has  been  sown  far  and  wide  across  the 
tields  and  the  mountains  of  the  province  and  the  s<*ed  has  life 
in  it  and  a ju-omise  upon  it.  “It  shall  not  return  unto  me  void” 
is  the  word  that  cannot  be  broken.  Nowhere  in  the  Philippine 
fslands,  however,  has  i1  seemed  harder  to  win  the  women,  but 
surely  if  anyone  can  do  it  by  tact  and  love,  Mrs.  McDonald  will 
succeed. 


These  are  among  the  most  fertile  provinces  in  the  Philippines. 
All  around  the  rich  slopes  of  Mt.  Mayon  stretch  the  hemp  groves 
and  at  night  the  I'oads  are  full  of  the  .slow  moving  carabao 
carts,  each  with  its  yellow  flare  of  light,  moving  down  to  the 
hemp  warehouses  in  Legaspi.  And  there  is  a richer  fruitage  to 
be  gathered  here  than  the  yellow  fibre  of  the  hemp.  The  work 
which  ^Ir.  Brown  and  Mr.  McDonald  are  doing  and  the  longing 
of  the  people  for  the  return  of  Dr.  Bobert  Carter  whom  ill  health 
has  taken  back  to  the  Fnited  States,  and  the  open  and  even 
attectionate  welcome  which  we  met  everywhere,  are  evidence 
enougli  of  the  accessibilit3'  of  human  hearts  here  to  that  love 
which  finds  not  in  hemj)  but  in  men  the  riches  which  are  prized 
of  God. 


R.  E.  S. 


(7)  THROITOH  THE  COCO.\XrT  GROVES  OF  L.\GrXA  AXT)  TATABAS 

S.  S.  “China.” 
Sept.  4.  1915. 

D will  not  be  main-  Aears  before  the  traveler  can  ride  con- 
tinuoush’  in  an  automobile  over  as  good  roads  as  can  be  found 
on  earth  from  one  end  to  the  other  of  the  great  Island  of  Luzon. 
When  that  becomes  possible  this  will  sureh-  be  one  of  the  most 
famous  and  attractive  motor  rides  in  the  world.  Even  now. 
when  the  road  has  reached  neither  the  northern  nor  the  southern 
end  of  the  island  it  is  still  pos.sible  to  see  on  the  four  or  five 
hundred  miles  of  road  now  done  siifficient  variety'  and  beautv 
of  life  and  sceneiw  to  justify  a trip  half  waA*  around  the  world. 
I think  what  the  traveler  would  .see  and  enjoy  in  the  provinces 
of  Laguna  and  Tayabas  alone  would  be  suflicieut  reward, — the 
quiet  blue  island-studded,  inountaiu-rimmed  waters  of  the  La- 
guna de  BaA’,  the  gi*eat  inland  lake  of  Luzon,  the  far-reaching, 
terraced  rice  fields,  full  at  this  .season  of  the  planters,  men  and 
women,  dressed  in  bright  colored  garments  and  setting  out  the 
rice  plants,  the  great  forest-covered  mountains  and  the  perfect 

214 


roads  with  close-cut  grass  borders,  shadowed  here  and  there  by 
mango  trees  and  running  for  miles  and  miles  through  the  cocoanut 
plantations,  the  rivers  and  little  brooks,  and  at  last  at  the  road’s 
end  the  waters  of  the  Pacific.  It  was  full  moon  when  we  were 
in  Tayabas  and  mid-summer,  and  after  an  evening  of  moonlight 
sifting  through  the  palm  fronds  and  the  soft  breathing  of  the 
summer  night  breeze,  fragrance-laden,  one  can  understand  bet- 
ter how  fair  Paradise  must  be  to  be  fairer  than  earth. 

Scattered  through  these  two  provinces  is  some  of  our  most 
fruitful  and  encouraging  work  in  the  Philippine  Islands.  In 
Laguna  with  its  population  of  1. ■>0,000  and  area  of  629  square 
miles,  T)r.  and  Mrs.  Hamilton  have  eighteen  congregations  in 
sixteen  towns,  six  of  which  are  regularly  organized  churches 
with  elders  and  deacons.  T think  we  saw  most  of  the  chapels 
and  church  buildings  in  the  Laguna  field  and  met  with  three 
of  the  congregations.  The  oldest  is  in  Santa  Cruz  where  Dr. 
and  Mrs.  Hamilton  are  living.  The  two  largest  are  at  Pagsanjan 
and  San  Pablo.  Pagsanjan  is  a fa.scinating  old  place  on  a little 
river  which  gives  the  town  water  communication  with  Manila  via 
the  Lagima  de  Bay  and  the  Pasig  Biver.  One  sees  ver\’  few  anci- 
ent Boman  Catholic  churches  in  the  Philippines.  The  reason 
u.sually  given  is  that  the  older  buildings  were  de.stroyed  by  earth- 
quakes. In  T’agsanjan,  howevei-,  the  old  church  still  stands 
which  b('ars  the  date  of  its  construction  in  1090.  Here  the  ev- 
angelical church  also  has  om‘  of  its  best  buildings,  erected  en- 
tirely with  inoiHW  ])rovi(led  by  the  church  itself,  most  of  it  by 
one  earnest  woman.  San  Pablo  is  the  largest  and  richest  town 
in  the  ]»rovince,  gaining  its  wealth  from  coju-a,  the  dried  meat 
of  the  cocoaiiut.  Scarcely  another  tinman  being  could  have  been 
packed  into  the  church  at  San  Pablo  on  our  visit.  Every  seat 
was  occnjiied,  (wery  .sipiaie  foot  of  standing  room,  the  windows 
were  ci-owded,  the  congregation  reached  beyond  the  front  door 
down  the  walk,  into  the  roadway.  The  jmor  were  there  and  also 
the  ju-osperous,  and  tliere  were  duets,  ipiartettes  and  choruses 
enough  to  remind  one  of  a similarly  constructed  celebration  at 
home.  The  church  in  San  Pablo,  like  many  of  our  churches  now, 
has  a voiing  jiastor  ti-aiiu'd  in  the  rnion  Theological  Seminarv 
in  Manil  a conducted  by  the  Methodists,  the  Pnited  Brethren  and 
onrs(dv(‘s.  The  graduates  are  active,  vigorous  young  men,  some 
of  them  with  snrjirisingly  good  theological  libraries  in  English. 
There  is  a great  deal  needing  to  be  done  in  the  development  of 
methods  of  education  of  the  church  membership  in  knowledge 
of  the  Bible  and  in  active  work,  and  most  of  our  Filipino 
(diurches  are  very  backward  in  the  matter  of  self-.support,  but  the 
rnion  Seminary,  having  the  training  of  all  the  men  of  these  dif- 
ferent denominations,  has  also  the  ojijiortunity  of  sending  al- 
most the  entire  evangelical  ministry  of  the  Philii)pine  T.slands 
out  to  its  work  with  right  ideals  and  tnie  sj)irit. 

It  is  interesting  to  trace  the  beginnings  of  the  work  in  the 
dilferent  congregations  and  to  sw  how  almost  invariably  the 

215 


first  seed  was  brou^lit  by  some  lay  Christian.  The  work  at  Bay. 
the  town  from  wliicli  the  lake  takes  its  name,  was  bej^in  by  a 
road  foreman  who  was  a member  of  the  Tondo  Church  in  Manila 
and  who,  removing  to  Bay,  at  once  be{;an  talking  with  his  friends 
and  acquaintances  concerning  his  faith  in  Christ,  and  holding 
small  meetings  at  which  he  preached  the  gospel  as  well  as  he 
could.  Later  two  women  came  to  the  town  who  were  members 
of  the  Methodist  Church  in  Manila  and  who  were  buying  and 
selling  goods  and  at  the  same  time  talking  of  Christ  wherever 
they  went,  llow  can  we  ever  hope  to  evangelize  the  Avorld  un- 
less we  do  it  in  this  way?  If  only  every  profes.sing  Christian 
man  and  woman  who  has  ever  gone  out  from  America  or  Great 
Britain  to  the  foreign  field  on  business  or  for  i)leasure  had  gone 
recognizing  this  (^hristian  obligation  to  spread  the  Go.spel  we 
should  have  <louble  the  fruitage  fi'oni  missionaiw  work  which  we 
now  have. 

The  Tayabas  ])rovince  surrounds  Laguna  on  the  south  and 
east.  It  has  a population  of  about  2.50.000  people  and  one  spe<-- 
ially  encouraging  feature  in  its  work  is  the  report  by  the  native 
ministers  of  a larger  number  of  people  in  the  Sunday-schools 
than  in  the  church  membership.  Lucena.  the  capital  of  the  pro- 
vince, is  a pleasant  town  on  the  west  coast  of  the  island.  Wher- 
ever we  have  gone  in  the  islands  we  have  visited  the  high  .schools 
and  intermediate  schools  and  have  accepted  every  invitation 
that  offered  to  sj)eak  to  them.  One  could  not  find  more  atten- 
tive, responsive,  and  enthusiastic  audiences.  And  here  at  Lu- 
cena they  seemed  specially  open  to  such  an  appeal  in  Ivehalf  of 
duty  ami  character  as  was  aj)pro])riate  to  make  in  a government 
school.  On  the  wall  near  the  piano  in  the  main  school  room 
hung  the  motto.  “Think  the  truth,  speak  the  truth,  do  the  truth.’' 
It  is  on  the  principle  of  that  motto  that  this  educational  work 
is  being  done  and  no  one  can  estimate  its  enormous  democratiz- 
ing and  emancipating  and  uplifting  influence. 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  Magill  who  were  in  charge  of  the  Tayabas  pi*o- 
vince,  are  at  home  on  furlough,  but  wherever  we  turned  we  met 
their  influence.  esj)ecially  far  u]>  on  the  slope  of  one  of  the  great 
mountains  in  the  ])icturesque  little  city  of  Lucban  through  whose 
streets  ran  the  clear  mountain  streams,  and  opposite  whose  old 
Ivoinan  Catholic  church  the  peo])le  had  taken  a commmlious  old 
building  and  adapted  it  to  their  use  as  an  evangelical  chapel.  It 
was  specklessly  white  and  clean  and  while  the  rain  poured  with- 
out we  spent  a whole  afternoon  in  conference  that  warmed  our 
hearts,  with  the  various  workers  of  the  ])rovince  who  had  come 
together,  and  were  not  suiquased  when  at  the  close  of  the  confer- 
ence through  the  wide  oj)en  doors,  a great  troop  of  school  boys 
on  their  way  home  from  school  swanned  in  out  of  curiosity  and 
remained  with  delight  when  the  call  of  the  gospel  was  put  to 
them  just  as  one  would  j)ut  it  to  boys  at  home. 

The  beautiful  roads  which  have  been  opened  through  these 
l)rovinces  are  doing  much  more  than  transporting  merchandise. 

216 


They  are  sending  ideas  fi-eely  from  town  to  town  and  village  to 
village  where  formerly  the  ideas  like  the  old  carts  were  bogged 
in  tlie  mnd  of  the  ancient  trails.  And  ;^vhere  the  road  ran  by 
the  o])en  s(|uare  in  one  village  we  saw  wliat  is  now  a charactei-- 
istic  and  significant  sight.  The  boys  of  the  village  were  ])laying 
a ba.se  ball  match,  the  work  of  the  day  being  done,  and  the  girls 
in  clean  dre.sses  were  sitting  on  a grassy  bank,  cheering  the  play- 
ers. Behind  them  stood  the  old  chnrch,  and  not  far  away  the 
cock  j)it  in  neglect.  The  treasurer  of  one  ju-ovince  told  me,  in- 
d(^d,  that  base  ball  was  slowly  killing  out  the  cock  pits,  that 
the  new  generation  felt  there  were  other  things  that  were  more 
worth  while.  Along  the  roa<ls  from  town  to  town  such  new 
ideas  are  rnnning  now.  And  over  these  highways  the  messengers 
of  the  gosi»el  and  their  message  also  jtass.  ^Yere  they  not  meant 
for  this? 

B.  E.  S. 


(S)  THE  NEW  DAY  IX  MANILA 

S.  S.  “China.” 
Sept.  4,  1!)15. 

At  the  sonthwestern  corner  of  the  old  walled  city  of  Manila, 
beyond  the  sunken  gardens  which  wei-e  once  the  moat  of  the 
city  and  near  the  little  park  of  Luneta,  looking  ont  upon  the 
.sea  stand  two  monuments.  One  is  in  memorj'  of  the  two  great 
forces  which  shaped  the  life  and  history  of  the  Philippine  Islands 
for  four  hundred  j’ears.  It  consists  of  a heavy  pedestal  on  which 
stands  a cross  njdield  on  one  side  by  Crdaneta  and  on  the  other 
by  Legas])i,  the  i»riest  and  the  soldier  who  began  the  rule  of  the 
Koman  chnrch  ami  of  Sjiain  on  the  Island  of  Luzon.  The  other 
monument  is  in  memory  of  Bizal,  the  Filipino  patriot,  shot  as  a 
revolutionist  in  IShtJ,  whose  jirotests  against  the  ancient  order 
of  injustice  were  the  forerunners  of  the  new  day  that  has  dawn- 
(hJ.  llis  statue  stands  in  alimtst  every  city  in  the  Philippines 
and  the  very  mention  of  his  name  brings  an  almost  (juivering 
silence  to  the  best  young  life  of  the  islands  today.  And  who 
erected  these  two  monuments?  Neither  the  Itoman  church  nor 
the  Spanish  government  nor  the  party  of  the  revolutionists. 
The  American  government  reared  them  in  candid  recognition  of 
all  that  has  been  worthy  in  the  i)ast  and  in  fearless  acknowl- 
edgment of  the  sj)irit  of  liberty.  And  it  is  this  desire  honestly 
to  deal  with  facts  and  unseltishly  to  advance  the  true  interests 
of  the  p(*oj)le  which  the  traveler  coming  to  the  Phili]»])ines  from 
Siam  and  the  Straits  Settlements  feels  at  once  as  a fresh  ami 
exhilirating  thing,  becau.se  the  acce])tance  of  facts  includes  the 
great  fact  that  facts  can  be  changed  for  the  better  and  the  true 
interests  of  the  people  are  conceiveil  to  include  their  admission 
to  every  intellectual  and  political  privilege  and  their  develo])- 
ment  in  true  frecHlom  and  self-government. 

Wherever  men  mingle  there  will  be  collisions  of  interest  and 
of  will,  and  no  great  human  problem  like  this  of  the  I’hilippine 
* 217 


Islands  can  be  worked  out  by  smooth  band-writing  on  a piece 
of  paper.  It  can  only  be  worked  in  the  actual  arena  of  life  by 
sy  mpathies  that  can  bespat  lent  and  tolerant  because  they  are  or 
ganic.  And  after  having  been  sutliciently  in  contact  with  the 
problem  to  feel  at  least  the  comj)lexity  and  living  movement  of 
it  we  are  coming  away  with  greatly  increased  assurance  and 
hope.  What  Manila  is  now,  what  has  been  done  for  it,  and  the 
forces  that  are  moving  in  it  and  in  the  islands  make  a visit  such 
as  we  have  enjoyed  both  an  education  and  an  inspiration. 

‘‘This  is  a beautiful  city,”  I said  to  a young  Filipino  with 
whom  1 was  going  about  one  afternoon  before  we  left,  filling 
up  the  background  and  the  crevices  of  a study  of  the  city  which 
wanted  to  be  .sympathetic.  “Yes,”  said  he,  ‘‘it  is  now,  but  it  was 
not  a few  years  ago.”  He  was  saying  nothing  more  either  in 
depreciation  of  the  past  or  in  j)raise  of  the  pre.sent.  He  was 
simply  recognizing  the  fact  that  a great  .service  had  been  wrought 
and  that  the  service  was  not  yet  complete.  Let  anyone  come  to 
Manila  now  and  talk  to  the  Governor  or  to  his  fellow  Com- 
missioners or  to  any  of  the  men,  American  or  Filipino,  who  are 
carrying  the  real  re.sponsibilities  of  the  Islands  and  let  him  look 
at  the  i)ublic  improvements  of  the  city,  .sewerage,  water,  light- 
ing, roads,  police,  penal  institutions,  schools,  hospitals,  and  if 
he  does  not  feel  proud  of  what  his  country  has  done  here  and 
grateful  for  the  opportunity  which  has  been  given  it,  and  friend- 
ly from  the  bottom  of  his  heart  with  the  people  of  these  Islands 
and  with  their  struggles  and  aspirations,  he  surely  lacks  the 
capacity  of  either  an  inter  racial  or  a racial  patrioti.sm. 

Our  interest  has  been  deepest,  of  course,  in  the  contribution 
which  evangelical  Christianity  has  been  making  toward  this 
great  and  praiseworthy  advancement  of  a worthy  and  lovable 
people,  and  we  have  studied,  as  was  our  business,  the  agencies 
and  forces  through  which  the  free  and  living  gospel  borne  by  the 
evangelical  missions  is  operating, — the  Episcopal,  Methodist  and 
Christian  hospitals,  the  l’re.sbyterian.  Episcopal  and  Methodist 
dormitories  to  provide  the  moral  helps  and  sympathies  needed 
b}’  the  young  men  and  women  crowding  the  higher  schools  of 
the  capital,  the  Union  Theological  Seminary  in  which  Dr.  Lodg- 
ers and  Mr.  Wright  of  our  own  Presbyterian  mission  are  work- 
ing with  representatives  of  the  other  churches  in  training  the 
ministry  for  the  one  great  evangelical  body  of  the  Islands  of 
which  Methodists,  PresbjTerians,  Baptists,  Christians,  United 
Brethren  each  recogmize  themselves  to  be  a component  part,  the 
training  schools  for  Bible  women  of  the  Methodists  and  the  Pres- 
byterians, only  separate  because  of  the  necessities  of  dialect,  the 
many  churches  including  a beautiful  new  Episcopal  churqh  built 
not  for  the  non-Christian  Indians,  but  to  join  with  the  other 
bodies  in  the  unavoidable  duty  of  reaching  the  great  masses 
lapsed  from  all  vital  connection  with  the  Roman  church  and  es- 
pecially the  great  bodies  of  younger  men  and  women  looking  for 
intellectual  and  religious  leadership  and  unwilling  to  accept  it 

218 


from  anyone  who  dare  not  say  to  them  “Ye  shall  know  the  truth 
and  the  truth  shall  make  j’ou  free.”  No  agencies  or  forces  have 
been  more  effective  than  these  in  advancing  the  new  day. 

The  last  Sunday  evening  of  our  stay  in  the  Philippines  I spoke 
at  a union  meeting  of  the  Methodist  and  Presbyterian  churches 
in  the  Tondo  district  of  the  citj\  The  large  church  and  Sunday- 
school  room  were  packed  to  the  walls  and  the  doorways  jammed 
with  listeners.  The  young  women  from  the  Ellinwood  Training 
School,  where  Miss  Bartholomew  and  Miss  Hodge  and  Miss 
Hannan  are  training  women  evangelists,  Bible  women,  pastors’ 
wives  and  girls  who  in  many  capacities  will  go  out  to  chajigc 
the  life  of  these  islands,  were  there  in  a body  singing  anthems 
as  acceptably  as  they  can  be  sung  at  liome.  As  I looked  out 
over  the  multitude  of  eager  and  reverent  worshippers,  I could 
not  but  contra.st  Ibis  day  with  the  day  tliat  I pa.ssed  by  the 
Philippine  I.slands  through  the  China  Sea  eighteen  years  ago. 
Then  there  was  not  an  evangelical  church  in  the  Islands,  now 
there  are  nearly  five  hundred.  Then,  1 suppose,  there  was  not 
a Filipino  who  was  a member  of  an  evangelical  church.  That 
evening  I was  looking  out  over  hundreds  and  hundreds  of  them 
and  knew  that  for  every  one  hundred  in  the  room  that  niglit 
there  were  ten  thou.'^aud  more  throughout  the  Islands.  Who 
can  forecast  the  fruitage  of  tlie  future  when  the  tides  of  life 
which  are  just  beginning  to  flow  have  risen  to  their  flood? 

I must  not  omit  to  mention  among  these  agencies  of  the  new 
life  in  Manila  the  work  of  the  Young  Men’s  Cliristian  Associa- 
tion both  for  Americans  and  for  Filij)inos,  tlie  Filipino  associa- 
tion having  just  coni])leted  a campaigu  for  a thousand  members, 
and  the  Fnion  Church  for  Americans  of  which  the  Bev.  Bruce  S. 
Wright,  a Methodist  ministei-  from  Frie,  Pa.,  is  the  trusted  and 
succes.sful  leader,  with  the  support  of  many  good  men  in  the 
American  community  and  with  no  more  n.seful  helper  than  ^Ir. 
Gunn  of  our  mission  whose  work  as  an  architect  is  giving  a 
character  and  solidity  to  the  buildings  of  other  mis.Mons  as  well 
as  our  own  which  deserves  the  highest  praise. 

And  best  of  all,  to  paraphrase  John  Wesley's  words,  God  is 
at  work  in  Manila  in  and  through  and  over  all  that  His  children 
are  doing,  and  when  flu*  beginning  is  from  Him,  the  end  is  sure. 

K.  F.  S. 


219 


2.  SOME  PRESENTDAV  IMPRESSIONS  OF  C'ONDITIONS 
IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 


S.  S.  “China.” 
Sept.  0,  191.5. 

If  a Iraveler  in  Siam  were  blindfolded  and  transporter!  to  the 
Pliilipj)ine  Islands  and  the  blind  removed  be  mijilit  at  first  Ik* 
in  doubt  as  to  whether  he  bad  left  Siam  at  all.  He  would  s(*e 
around  him  the  familiar  domestic  animals,  most  conspicuous 
amoii”;  them  the  uncf)uth  but  indi.'ipensable  carabao.  Paddy 
fields  just  like  those  in  Siam  would  stretch  about  him,  edge<l 
with  palm  tree.s,  skilfully  terraced  and  irrigaterl  and  filletl  at 
the  same  planting  .season  with  cheerful  companies  of  brightly 
dre.ssed  village  folk  .setting  out  the  rice  plants.  If  he  heard  the 
peojile  singing,  many  cadences  of  their  song  would  .sound  to  him 
like  the  strains  he  had  been  hearing  on  the  streams  and  the 
roadways  where  he  had  traveled  in  Siam.  The  houses  of  bamboo 
and  nipa  thatch,  the  banana  groves,  the  women’s  skirts,  at  lea.st 
in  the  Island  of  Panay,  the  sun  and  the  seasons,  the  betel  nut, 
and  indeed  most  of  the  outward  frame  of  life  would  lead  such 
a traveler  to  wonder  whether  he  had  not  been  led  on  some  long, 
circuitous  journey  which  left  him  .still  in  his  own  land. 

One  day’s  experience,  however,  would  show  him  that  he  had 
pa.ssed  into  conditions  differing  from  those  he  had  known  as 
day  from  night.  In  comparison  with  the  Philippines  the  spirit 
of  Siam  is  quiescent,  inert.  “What  profit  can  there  be  in  strug- 
gle?” it  seems  to  ask.  “Did  not  our  lord  Buddha  teach  that  all 
desire  is  empty? 

‘What  pleasure  can  we  have  to  strive  with  evil? 

And  is  there  auy  peace  in  ever  climbing  uj)  the  climbing  wave.’ 
We  are  ambitious  only  to  be  as  we  have  been.  Do  not  disturb 
us  with  restless  dreams.”  The  contrast  to  all  this  which  one 
meets  in  the  Philippine  Islands  is  instantaneous  and  complete. 
Here  are  eager  people,  full  of  life  and  hope,  drinking  eagerly  at 
the  fountains  of  new  life  and  energy',  cheerful,  happy  in  their 
greetings,  pushing  hard  against  old  limitations.  In  fifteen  years 
they  have  swung  clear  out  of  the  back  eddies  of  i*esignation  and 
contentment  in  which  the  great  mass  of  the  Siamese  people  are 
.sleeping  into  the  great  stream  of  earnest  life  and  joyous  effort 
which  sweeps  through  the  modern  world.  It  is  exhilarating  to 
come  into  this  atmosphere  of  freedom  and  democratic  joy  after 
having  felt  the  heavy  luessure  of  the  weight  of  contented  or  de- 
spairing hopelessness  which  rests  on  the  main  lands  of  eastern 
Asia. 

One  cheerfully  gives  to  the  Roman  church  and  to  the  Spanish 
government  whatever  credit  is  due  them  for  this  profound  dif- 
ference in  mental  spirit  and  attitude  toward  life  between  the 

220 


Filipinos  and  the  other  south  Asiatic  peoples.  It  is  due  to  them 
that  neither  the  narcotic  influence  of  Buddhism,  nor  the  steril- 
ity’ of  Islam,  nor  the  wayward  wastefulness  of  animism  has  de- 
stroyed the  spirit  of  the  people.  They  taught  them  instead  to 
believe  in  God  and  in  the  great  personalizing  and  renewing 
principles  of  Christianity  and  they  gave  them  the  elements  of 
the  ideals  of  thought  and  standards  of  action  which  determine 
the  values  of  life  for  all  that  part  of  humanity  which  is  awake. 
The  American  spirit  has  unreservedly  recognized  all  this  debt 
of  the  Philippine  Islands  to  the  past  and  has  erected  on  the  sea 
front  looking  out  over  Manila  Bay  a great  monument  in  which 
Legaspi,  the  .soldier,  and  T'rdineta,  tlie  prie.st,  stand  on  either 
side  of  a ci-oss,  ty]>ifying  the  three  great  forces  which  for  four 
hundred  years  wrought  upon  the  sjiirit  of  a not  unresponsive 
people.  But  when  all  tliis  has  been  said  no  one  can  fail  to  see 
that  it  is  the  efficiency  and 'unselfishness  of  the  service  that  has 
been  rendered  in  the  Phili]»])ine  Islaials  during  the  past  fifteen 
years  by  America  which  is  chiefly  resj)onsil)le  for  the  present 
conditions.  Americans  have  a right  to  he  proud  of  the  achieve- 
ment of  these  fifteen  years.  The  sj)irif  of  a whole  people  has 
been  changed  from  snsjdcion  to  good  will,  from  despair  to  hope, 
from  ineipiality  and  ]>rivilege  to  democracy  and  brotherhood.  A 
national  unification  lias  been  begun  and  is  7*apidly  advancing, 
not  only  unchecked  but  ins])ired  and  ])romoted  liy  tlie  American 
administration,  not  only  without  fear  but  with  joy  and  of  set 
purpo.se,  and  the  whole  ])rocess  lias  b(‘en  fiw  and  living  and 
guided  by  moral  forces  which  have  made  no  use  of  the  mechani- 
cal and  militaristic  agencies  to  which  other  lands  have  resorted. 

The  most  remarkable  and  elfectivi'  of  all  the  agencies  whicli 
the  government  has  iis(>d  has  been  tin*  new  educational  .system. 
Tlie  Phili])])ine  inibHc  s(  bool  system,  as  its  director  says,  is  jirob 
ably  the  most  highly  centi-alizeil  system  in  the  world  and  it  is 
hard  for  any  one  who  has  not  seen  its  work,  ramifying  through 
all  the  provinces  of  tin*  Islands  and  rapidly  jiervading,  with  its 
vivifying  ferment,  the  whole  body  of  society,  to  realize  its  [lower.- 
When  the  Americans  came  to  the  Islands  they  found  no  pnblit 
school  system.  Tin*  l\onian  clinrcli  had  its  own  higher  schools 
but  the  few  luiniary  .schools  in  existence  were  negligible.  In 
March.  Ifil.o,  th(*r(*  wer(‘  d,S:>7  primary  schools,  :{((t)  intermediate* 
schools,  and  41  s(*comlary  schools,  a total  of  4,187,  with  a total 
teaching  force  of  !t,84r).  .More  than  half  of  all  the  children  of 
.scliool  age  in  the  Islands  wei-e  (‘iirollcd.  When  the  schools  were 
first  ojiened  the  ]i(*ople  w(*rc  nninteresid  or  susjiicions  or  op 
posed;  now  the  schools  are  their  most  pojtnlar  institntieni.  Tin* 
tii-st  act  of  the  Filij)ino  h*gislatnr(*  after  its  inauguration  was  to 
|»ass  an  ai»propiial ion  for  school  purposes.  One-fonrth  of  the 
entire  budget  of  the  insnhir  government  is  devoted  to  education. 
Kv(*rywh(*re  tin*  |K*o]d(*  fie(*ly  vote  taxes  for  educational  ])urposes 
and  contribute  from  lh(*ir  personal  funds  foi-  the  snp])ort  of 
schools  ami  furnish  labor  and  niat(*rials  for  school  buildings. 

221 


Within  a few  years  the  great  mass  of  the  population  will  have 
been  given  a primary  education  so  that  eveiw  one  will  be  able  to 
read  and  write.  An  intermediate  education  will  have  been  given 
to  the  substantial  middle  class  of  the  countrv'  and  higher  in- 
struction will  have  been  provided  for  tho.se  who  are  to  assume 
leadership.  The  Filipino  people  never  have  been  a unity.  They 
Iiad  no  common  language  or  literature.  But  a small  fraction 
of  them  were  able  to  speak  Spanish,  and  while  to  this  extent 
Spanish  constituted  a bond  of  union,  it  was  also  an  agency  of 
separation  among  the  people  and  of  aristocratic  domination. 
The  new  schools  made  Engli.sh  the  language  of  instruction  be- 
caii.se  a common  language  was  e.s.sential  for  national  unity,  be- 
cause English  gave  the  fullest  contact  with  the  ideals  of  democ- 
racy and  because  it  is  the  commercial  language  of  the  world, 
e.specially  of  the  Far  East.  Now,  it  is  estimated,  many  more 
people  speak  English  than  ever  spoke  Spanish,  and  a generation 
is  growing  up  to  which  English  will  be  the  Filipino  language. 
The  change  that  has  already  taken  place  is  illustrated  in  the 
fact  that  during  the  half  year  ending  Dec.  1.  1913,  4,377  appli- 
cants took  the  civil  sei-vice  examinations  in  English  and  490  in 
Spanish,  while  six  years  ago  the  number  taking  the  examinations 
in  English  was  4,223  and  in  Spanish  1.975,  and  in  the  year  end- 
ing July  1,  1904,  2,443  were  examined  in  English  and  3,011  in 
Spanish.  The  effect  of  athletics  and  of  industrial  education  in 
Ihe  schools  has  been  equally  remarkable.  Clean  games  have 
brought  with  them  noticeable  improvement  in  the  physical  de- 
velojunent  of  the  people,  who  stood  in  great  need  of  such  influ- 
ences. They  have  developed  energy’,  organizing  ability,  and  the 
faculty  of  co-operation,  and  have  replaced  the  spirit  of  jeal- 
ousy and  of  tribal  strife  with  generous  rivalry.  The  industrial 
instruction  has  steadily  changed  the  viewpoint  of  the  people 
respecting  manual  labor,  has  raised  the  standard  of  living,  im- 
jiroved  the  home  and  home  life,  taught  better  methods  of  cook- 
ing, sanitation  and  the  care  of  children,  provided  vocations  and 
developed  national  resources.  Xo  normal  pupil  is  promoted  from 
a primary  or  intermediate  grade  without  participating  in  indus- 
trial work.  Already  the  effects  of  the  schools  are  apparent  in 
every  department  of  the  life  of  the  people.  In  many  provinces 
men  under  thirty  are  no  longer  seen  at  the  cock  pits  and  every 
year  the  revenue  from  the  licen.sed  cock  fighting  diminishes.  In 
every  province  farmers  are  multiplying  their  tilled  area,  having 
learned  better  methods  and  realizing  now  that  the  old  days  of 
insecurity  and  oppression  are  gone  forever. 

Wherever  we  have  gone  through  the  islands  in  the  dozen  pro- 
vinces which  we  have  vi.sited  we  have  attended  the  schools  and 
have  come  away  with  new  courage  and  hope  in  the  remembrance 
of  tliis  great  host  of  eager,  malleable,  enthusiastic  young  life 
drinking  in  the  streams  of  truth  and  democracy  and  dreaming 
for  themselves  and  for  their  Islands  the  great  dreams  which  may 
not  always  yield  the  great  deeds  but  without  which  certainly 

222 


the  great  deeds  cannot  be.  These  boys  and  girls  in  the  high  and 
intermediate  schools  constitute  one  of  the  great  opportunities 
of  the  evangelical  missions.  Wherever  these  missions  have  any 
chapels  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  schools,  a large  part  of  the 
congregation  is  sure  to  be  made  up  of  students.  They  come  from 
and  go  back  to  the  better  class  homes  to  which  it  has  been  most 
diflScult  thus  far  to  secure  access.  Their  education  has  raised 
questions  in  their  minds  which  they  are  not  willing  to  evade  and 
which  bring  them  to  religioiis  teachers  who  do  not  forbid  them 
to  think  and  who  are  willing  to  lead  them  forward  into  the 
.strange  new  land  of  liberty.  Within  the  next  ten  years  tens  of 
thousands  of  these  young  people  for  whom  mere  ecclesiastical 
authority  has  no  meaning  .should  be  brought  into  a living  re- 
ligious faith. 

I cannot  put  more  vividly  the  educational  achievement  of  the 
la.st  15  years  in  the  Philippine  Islands  than  by  comparing  it 
numerically  with  the  educational  system  of  Siam. 


Siam. 

Total  government  income  . . .S2S,070,774 

Devoted  to  education  S623,49n 

Total  number  of  schools  un- 
der the  department  of  pub- 
lic instruction  394 

Scholars  in  these  schools  . . . 25,486 


Philippine  Islands. 
811,275,074 
82,082,172 


4,187 

610,519 


The  Siame.se  Government  estimates  that  there  are  approxi- 
mately 2,900  local  and  private  schools  with  95,000  scholars  not 
under  the  ministry’  of  public  instruction.  Let  such  schools  and 
scholars  be  excluded  in  tlie  Philippine  Islands  and  included  in 
Siam  and  the  latter  would  have  3,294  schools  and  120,486  schol- 
ars in  a population  about  the  same  as  that  of  the  Philippines. 

The  land  which  the.se  young  peojile  are  being  trained  to  de- 
velop is  a far  more  attractive  and  habitable  and  homelike  land 
than  it  is  easy  for  us  in  America  to  conceive.  The  Islands  are 
not  all  swamp  and  forest  and  tropical  jungle.  The  com  fields 
of  Cebu  look  verv'  much  like  hillside  corn  fields  at  home.  Al- 
though nearly  half  the  area  of  the  Islands  is  estiTuated  to  bo 
forest  we  travelefl  widely  through  the  Islands  and  only  twice 
came  in  touch  with  the  forests.  The  weather  in  August  was  not 
a whit  more  trying  than  inid-suiumer  in  New  York  city,  and  the 
nights  were  almost  invariably  comfortable.  It  is  true  that  the 
death  rate  among  the  people  has  been  high  and  that  the  popula- 
tion is  sparse.  Java,  which  is  not  as  large  as  Luzon  or  Mindanao, 
has  five  times  the  population  of  the  entire  Philippine  Islands. 
But  already  the  American  occupation  has  reduced  the  mortality. 
The  opening  of  artesian  wells  alone,  which  the  government  has 
dug  free  of  charge,  has  cut  down  the  death  rate  50  per  cent,  in 
many  localities.  With  better  sanitation  and  the  trained  doctors 
who  are  being  sent  out  eveiw  year  from  one  of  the  best  equipped 
medical  training  schools  in  the  world  in  Manila,  with  the  spread 

223 


of  knowledge  regarding  hygiene  through  the  scho<jls,  and  with 
tlie  oi>ening  of  roads,  affording  a free  interchange  of  services  and 
ideas,  the  poijulation  is  sure  steadily  to  increase  in  these  fertile 
areas  which  could  easily  sustain  ten  times  the  present  niirt)ber 
of  inhabitants. 

What  influence  might  not  a great  t’hristian  population  like 
this,  living  under  free  political  ideals,  exert  ui)on  the  h^'ar  East? 

One  meets  in  the  Philij)j)ine  Islands  many  enthusiasts  who 
declare  that  the  Island  of  Mindanao  alone  could  sustain  ten 
times  the  ]>resent  population  of  the  whole  archipelago.  Min- 
danao and  Luzon  embrace  each  approximately  one-third  of  the 

120.000  s(piare  miles  of  the  Islands.  Mindanao  has  at  present, 
in  an  area  approximately  that  of  Holland.  Belgium  and  Den- 
mark combined,  only  020, OSO  inhabitants,  or  seventeen  to  the 
square  mile,  while  Java  who.se  phy.sical  conditions  are  similar, 
has  590  to  the  .scpiare  mile.  It  has  the  best  climate  in  the  Island.s, 

22.000  square  miles  of  forest,  and  as  good  grazing  ground  as  can 
be  found  anywhere  in  the  Avorld.  If  you  ask  for  anything  in  the 
Philippine  Islands  that  you  have  not  found  elsewhere,  you  are 
met  with  the  reply.  “O  yes,  you  will  find  it  in  Mindanao.”  As 
in  the  case  of  the  Hokkaido  in  .Iai)an.  thousands  of  immigrants 
from  other  islands  are  moving  in.  Whole  evangelical  congrega- 
tions from  Tebu  have  remove<l  to  northern  Mindanao.  Young 
men  from  Silliman  Institute  have  scatterefl  along  the  north 
coast  carrying  with  them  the  seeds  of  the  new  life  which  they 
got  at  Dumaguete.  The  communities  are  wide  open  to  the  gos- 
]iel.  When  the  representative  of  the  Congregational  Church  to 
which  Mindanao  is  assigned  in  the  distribution  of  responsibility 
for  the  evangelization  of  the  Philippines  came  to  Cagayan,  the 
governor,  treasurer,  presideiite,  and  all  the  chief  officials  wel- 
coniwl  him,  calling  for  a hospital,  a college,  a dormitorv’,  a 
church.  After  the  slaughter  in  the  cock  pit  Sunday  afternoon 
it  was  offered  for  a meeting,  which  drank  in  the  words  of  the 
preacher,  and  the  next  day  the  chief  political  paper  of  the  city 
(‘alle<I  ui>on  the  people  of  the  province  to  give  the  missionaries 
their  friendship  and  .su])port.  Similar  doors  of  opportunity  art 
wide  ajar  on  every  side. 

The  Koman  church  had  its  unhindered  opportunity  for  four 
hundred  years.  I have  already  borne  ungrudging  testimony  to 
some  of  the  good  that  it  accomplished,  but  it  wrought  also  much 
evil  ami  it  showed  it.self  through  its  divisions,  its  inefficiency 
and  its  despotism,  incapable  of  doing  alone  the  work  which 
needed  to  be  done.  It  was  divided  and  is  divided  still.  The 
friars  contendefl  with  one  another  and  with  the  Filipino  clergA' 
from  whom  they  sought  to  take  away  the  parochial  care  of  their 
own  people.  In  1S49  only  one-fifth,  and  those  the  poorest,  of 
the  198  parishes  under  the  Archbishopric  of  Manila,  belonged  to 
the  Filipinos  and  this  number  was  steadily  reduced,  for  the 
decree  of  Se])t.  10,  ISfil  gave  power  to  the  Recolletos  ‘To  ad- 
minister the  i)arishes  of  Cavite  jirovince  and  other  parishes  now 

224 


iiiider  the  native  clergv’,  as  they  are  being  vacated.”  The  friars’ 
orders  which  are  now  regaining  something  of  their  strength,  are 
again  a source  of  disnnion  and  conflict.  The  church  was  and  is 
inetflcient.  One  of  its  own  lawv'ers  as  well  as  officials  whose 
busine.ss  brought  them  into  relation  with  it  told  me  that  they 
were  amazed  at  its  business  innocence  and  incapacity  and  at 
the  lo.s.ses  that  it  had  suffered  in  consequence.  No  one  can  look 
at  the  present  ineffective  and  mi.sapplied  activities  of  the  chiirch, 
missing  so  much  of  the  wonderful  opportunity  of  the  present 
day,  without  marvelling  at  its  want  of  insight  and  intelligent 
direction,  lilvery  one  who  longs  to  see  the  Roman  Chnrch  pnri- 
fied  and  nationalize<l  and  set  free  mnst  look  with  sorrow  npon 
it  as  it  stands  divided  and  confused  among  the  havoc  which  it 
lielped  to  make,  and  among  the  mighty  forces  of  freedom  and 
hope  which  are  repairing  that  havoc  and  building  in  its  .stead  a 
structure  of  truth  and  liberty. 

The  present  sitnafion  offers  what  Paul  would  call  “a  wide 
door  and  effectual”  to  tlie  work  of  the  evangelical  missions.  Fif- 
teen years  ago  the  churches  entered  this  door  with  zeal  and 
wisdom.  Tn  a spirit  not  of  exclusive  claim  but  of  di.stribnted 
re.sponsibi1ity,  they  divided  the  task,  assigning  central  and  north- 
ern Luzon  to  the  Methodists,  southern  Luzon  to  the  Presbyter- 
ian.s,  the  Visayas  to  the  Raj)tists  and  I’resbyterians,  Mindanao 
to  the  Congregationalists.  Later  room  Avas  made  in  Luzon  for 
the  Fnited  Brethren  and  the  Christians,  and  the  Episcopalians 
who  had  begun  their  work  for  Americans  and  the  non-Christian 
tribes,  were  led  on  by  the  A’ery  compulsion  of  the  need  to  share 
in  the  general  work  for  the  Filipino  peo])le  in  Manila.  These 
determinations  of  responsibility  have  Imen  of  the  greatest  value. 
They  have  .secured  a far  wider  evangelization  than  would  other- 
wise have  been  j)ossible  and  they  have  ministered  to  the  unifi- 
cation of  the  peoj)l(“  Ihrongh  the  subordination  of  all  denomina- 
tional divisions  and  the  co-oi-ilination  of  the  i-esnlts  of  the  work 
of  almost  all  the  missions,  not  only  in  an  evangelical  union  of 
the  workers,  but  in  a chnrch  union  of  the  congregations  in  the 
one  “Evangelical  ('hi-istian  t'hnrch  of  the  Philippine  Islands.” 
The  chnrch  is  woefully  weak  as  yet  in  wholly  self-supporting 
local  units  and  there  a])|»ears  to  liave  be<m  temporarily  a sub- 
sidence of  the  zeal  and  momentum  of  the  first  days.  Various 
reasons  are  given  for  this.  (1)  When  the  evangelical  churches 
first  came  the  Roman  Chnrch  was  identified  in  the  minds  of  the 
people  with  the  op])ressions  which  they  had  long  suffered,  and  in 
reacfing  from  these  o]»]»iessions  they  swung  away  from  the 
church,  which  they  chai-ged  with  complicity  in  them,  but  now 
for  fifteen  y(*ars  th(*v  have*  lived  in  freedom  and  unoppressed 
and  do  mtt  f(*el  the  conscious  aniimtsity  and  insurrection  against 
the  chnrch  which  mov(*d  them  in  the  (*arly  days.  (2)  The  moral 
i(H|iii remen ts  of  Chiist iani ty  soon  emerged  and  proved  too  ex- 
acting to  many  who  had  thought  of  the  new  chnrch  which  had 
come  with  hospitality  becan.se  of  its  intellectual  ideas  and  spirit 

225 

8 — Report  of  Deputation. 


of  democracy,  but  who  could  not  bear  its  severe  ethical  demands. 
(.S)  At  first  the  evangelical  movement  struck  the  people  with  the 
impact  of  a complete  and  glowing  unity.  No  differences  were 
])erceptible  among  the  missionaries  who  came,  though  different 
evangelical  bodies  had  sent  them.  With  the  warmth  of  a united 
heart  and  the  simplicity  of  a common  voice  they  .spoke  to  multi- 
fudes  waiting  for  just  such  a message.  Later,  here  and  there, 
divisive  elements  had  slipped  in.  They  had  not  destroye<l  the 
real  unity  of  the  whole  body,  but  in  .some  local  situations  had 
qualified  and  weakened  it.  (4l  Many  doubtless  had  gone  with 
the  crowd  at  first  who  later  fell  back,  not  finding  some  who 
they  had  expected  would  join,  or  discovering  that  the  crowd  was 
not  as  great  as  they  had  thought  it  would  come  to  l)e.  (5)  The 
])overty  of  the  people,  as  .some  have  alleged,  compelling  them  to 
give  all  their  thought  to  the  hard  task  of  earning  their  daily 
bread,  leaving  them  no  time  to  study  the  claims  of  religion,  no 
money  for  the  support  of  a church.  16 1 The  growing  pro.sperity 
of  the  people,  others  have  alleged,  absorbing  their  thought  in 
plans  of  financial  gain  and  making  them  careless  of  religious 
things.  (7)  “Five  years  from  now,”  said  one  of  the  most  in- 
telligent and  energetic  Filipino  leaders,  “you  will  find  that  the 
tide  has  returned  with  fuller  strength  than  ever.  The  thought 
of  the  people  is  concentrated  at  present  on  political  discussion, 
but  within  a few  years  this  will  have  pas.sed  by.  Policies  will 
have  been  clearly  settled  and  will  have  become  understood. 
Then  again  the  mind  of  the  people  will  turn  to  the  deepest  prob- 
lems and  necessities,  and  multitudes  both  of  the  older  people 
to  whom  the  old  religious  forms  are  meaningless,  and  of  the 
younger  people  to  whom  they  are  unreal  and  untrue  and  who. 
believing  intellectually  in  God  and  Christ,  are  still  seeking  a 
vital  experience,  will  turn  to  the  Bible  and  to  the  church  which 
is  not  afraid  to  open  its  pages  to  the  people  and  answer  the 
questions  which  the  people  ask. 

But  our  observation  and  experience  would  lead  to  the  con- 
clusion that  there  is  no  need  of  waiting  for  five  years,  that  the 
door  is  just  as  wide  open  now  as  it  was  fifteen  years  ago  and 
wider,  that  in  almost  every  municipio  and  barrio  in  the  islands 
there  are  men  and  women  accessible  and  waiting,  and  that  no- 
where in  the  world  is  there  a richer  and  more  immediate  possi- 
bility of  an  evangelistic  harvest  and  of  a great  moulding  of  char- 
acter in  individuals  and  in  a nation  than  among  the  50,000  stu- 
dents enrolled  in  the  intermediate  and  secondary  schools,  who 
are  dead  ripe  for  friendship  and  for  every  true  and  tactful  in- 
fluence which  will  lead  them  to  take  Christ  into  their  lives  as 
their  living  Master. 

One  sees  no  hope  of  any  self-generated  movements  of  religious 
revival  in  the  Islands.  Aglipayanism  is  disintegrating  and,  in 
the  process,  is  passing  through  a pitiful  degeneration.  It  began 
as  a great  revolt  within  the  Boman  Church  but  it  represented 
no  vital,  intellectual  or  spiritual  principle.  It  was  a rebellion, 

226 


not  a reform,  and  it  met  its  death  blow  when  the  courts  awarded 
the  church  properties  to  the  Roman  organization.  A few  church 
buildings  were  built.  Some  of  these  are  still  maintained  in 
shabby  disrepair.  Some  of  the  people  have  returned  to  their 
old  superstitions  and  even  deepened  the  fraud  and  falsehood 
which  they  had  repudiated,  as  in  the  case  of  the  church  in  Santa 
Cruz  worshipping  and  making  money  out  of  the  Virgin  of  Mal- 
ove,  which  is  nothing  but  a curiously  shaped  knot  of  wood. 
Aglipay  himself,  under  the  influence  of  one  of  his  followers  who 
has  dug  up  the  remains  of  Renan,  has  now  taken  up  with  a 
charlatan  rationalism.  These  are  some  of  the  questions  and  an- 
swers from  his  la.st  catechism. 

“How  does  the  Igle.sia  Filipina  (Aglipayna)  deflne  religion?” 
Ans.  “Religion  is  a science  which  by  means  of  rationalistic  in- 
vestigations studies  the  unknown  nature  of  God.” 

“What  is  the  characteristic  of  the  Tglesia  Filipina?”  Ans. 
“Tt  is  the  unique  church  in  the  world,  formally  established  with 
more  than  twenty  bishops  and  hundreds  of  presbyters  and,  plac- 
ing modem  science  above  the  Bible,  is  herself  worthy  of  the 
twentieth  centim-  from  which  she  sprang.” 

“What  is  the  go.spel  that  the  Tglesia  Filipina  follows?”  Ans. 
(There  follows  a claim  that  the  church  has  examined  the  can- 
onical writings  and  others  aiid  found  much  that  is  apocrs’phal 
and  something  that  is  authentic.)  “The  church  has  therefore 
chosen  the  authentic  parts  of  the  four  canons  and  completed 
them  with  the  other  interesting  facts  found  in  the  gospels  which, 
though  they  were  not  declared  authoritative,  are  as  old  as  the 
former,  and  she  has  made  her  general  Filipino  gospel  in  accord- 
ance with  the  .spirit  and  progre.ss  of  our  epoch.” 

“Did  Christ  perfonu  miracles?”  Ans.  “No,  He  Him.self  de- 
clared that  He  would  not  do  any  miracle  for  His  generation  (the 
reference  given  in  the  catechism  is  Mark  18:12!)  ^Miracles  are 
inipossible  because  they  are  against  the  immutable  laws  of  na- 
ture which  are  God’s  laws.” 

In  an  article  in  “T>a  Vanguardia,”  Feb.,  1913,  on  “Las  Doc- 
trinas  de  la  Tglesia  Nacional,”  Aglipay  wrote:  “Tf  Jesiis  were 
considered  as  a true  God.  He  would  be  a poor  little  God.  . . .He 
felt  an  excessive  fear  in  the  Blount  Tabor  and  in  the  Garden  of 
Geth.seniane  when  Tie  thought  of  the  great  peril  that  was  men- 
acing Him.  Considered  ns  a mere  man  His  sympathetic  figure 
appears  commendable  when  with  all  the  weakness  inherent  to  a 
man  He  exposed  Himself  to  danger  in  order  to  preach  the  truth 
. . . . Tbidonbteflly  Jesus  was  an  extraordinary  apostle  who.se  re- 
demptive doctrines  inspired  the  essence  of  our  modern  moral 
teachings.” 

The.se  are  not  accurate  tran.slations  of  Aglipay’s  Spani.sh. 
They  were  made  by  a young  Filipino  who,  T am  afraid,  was  mas- 
ter neither  of  Spanish  nor  of  English,  but  his  translation  does 
not  do  injustice  to  Aglipay’s  pre.sent  theological  position  and 
there  is  in  him  and  his  movement  no  hope  whatever  of  religious 
or  moral  helj)fulness  to  the  Filipino  people. 

227 


Their  hope  is  in  the  spirit  of  trutli  ami  freedom  that  is  now 
abroad  in  these  Islands  personified  in  the  high-minded,  capable, 
and  nnselfisli  service  of  the  American  administration,  breathed 
ever  deeper  and  deeper  into  the  life  of  the  people  by  the  public 
schools,  finding  now  an  increasing  number  of  Filii>ino  leader's 
who  are  ready  not  only  to  revere  Rizal  but  also  to  work  in  his 
spirit  for  the  Philippines  of  today,  and  borne  far  and  wide  over 
the  land  by  the  men  who  have  come  from  America  or  who  have 
been  raised  up  from  the  Islands,  whose  sign  is  not  A.  M,,  the 
inonogTam  of  Ave  Maria,  which  takes  the  place  of  the  figure  of 
the  Savior  over  the  altar  in  some  of  the  great  Manila  churches, 
but  A.  I).,  the  day  of  Mary’s  Son,  and  who  carry  not  so  much 
cross  or  crucifix  as  the  living  Christ. 

K.  E.  S. 


228 


3.  SOME  ASPECTS  OF  THE  RELIGIOUS  CONDITIONS  IN 
THE  PHILIPPINE  ISLANDS 


As  we  went  to  and  fro  in  the  Philippine  Islands  and  talked 
with  individuals  or  with  gronps  of  individnals,  two  questions 
were  sure  sooner  or  later  to  be  discussed,  (1|  What  were  the 
religious  conditions  in  the  Islands  which  justilied  the  coming 
of  the  evangelical  churches,  and  what  are  the  conditions  which 
warrant  their  continuance  today,  and  i‘J)  What  are  the  religious 
conditions  in  the  evangelical  churches  themselves.  Are  these 
churches  competent  or  qualilied  to  do  or  to  share  in  doing  the 
work  that  needs  to  be  done?  The  Board  and  those  who  read 
this  report  will  wish  first  of  all  to  have  without  comment,  the 
answers  which  the  F'ilii)inos  themselves  gave  to  these  questions, 
to  be  followed  by  any  interpretation  or  comment  which  we  may 
have  to  add. 

The  first  grouj)  to  wliich  these  cpiestions  were  put  was  made 
iij)  of  representative  men  and  women  from  the  evangelical 
churches  in  the  island  of  Panay.  One  layman  .sj)oke  up  at  once, 
“I  see  no  lUH^d,”  said  he,  “for  any  other  warrant  for  the  i^resence 
of  the  evangelical  churclies  than  is  su])])]ied  by  the  great  com- 
mission. That  commission  holds  with  regard  to  our  people  as 
truly  as  for  any  others  who  are  without  the  go.spel  of  the  New 
Testament.  I used  to  think,  indeed,  that  1 was  a Chri.stian,  but 
when  I i-ead  tlie  (jos])eIs  I realized  wliat  I had  never  realized 
Indore,  namely,  that  I was  a sinner  and  that  I needed  to  be 
.sav(nl,  and  tliat  only  the  grace  of  God  coiild  save  me.  The 
Filil)ino  j)eoj)le  need  to  r(*aliz(*  this  today  and  they  will  realize 
it  only  through  contact  with  the  New  Testament  Gospel  and 
without  the  evangelical  church  that  contact  will  not  be  given  to 
them.”  The  ablest  minister  who  was  ])r(*sent  followed  him, 
“There  an*  many  ])laces  in  thes(*  Islands,”  said  he,  “in  the  moun- 
tains and  in  the  barrios  where  the  p(*oj)le  are  not  ('hristians 
and  do  not  profess  to  be.  Hut  even  in  the  cities  where  the  whole 
I)opnlation  is  nominally  ( 'lii-ist ian,  it  is  only  nominally  so.  I 
was  representative  of  tin*  frame  of  mind  of  the  normal  Fili])ino 
and  1 regarded  myself  as  a Uhristian,  but  when  I read  the  Bible, 
I i-ealized  how  far  shoi  t I came  fi-om  being  anything  of  the  kind. 
The  gi-eat  difliculty  of  our  work  hei-(*  ami  the  supreme  evidence 
of  religious  need  is  the  failure  of  the  Eili])ino  ])eoj)le  to  conceive 
the  New  Testani(*nt  tyja*  of  rcdigious  faith  and  ex])(*rience.  When 
they  first  lieai-  of  evangelical  Ulii-isl ianity  they  thiidv  of  it  in 
terms  of  the  .same  sort  of  religious  unreality  to  which  they  have 
been  accmstomed.  And  I wish  that  this  were  all  that  needed  to 
be  .said,  but  I have  to  say  also  that  that  religious  unrealitj'  tol- 
erat(*d  flagrant  sin,  if  only  it  was  careful  in  its  external  con- 
formity.” The  next  speaker  was  an  interesting  character,  a 

229 


harnessmakei*  who  often  went  on  itinerating  trips  with'  Mr. 
Doltz  but  who  insisted  on  defraying  all  his  own  expenses  and 
who  scorned  the  idea  of  being  j>aid  for  any  evangelistic  service, 
but  on  the  othei-  hand,  with  his  brother,  contributed  toward  the 
sui)])ort  of  an  evangelist.  “Chi-ist,”  .said  he,  “came  not  among 
the  Gentiles,  but  among  the  Jews  and  it  was  to  the  Jews  that 
He  .sent  His  discij)les  first,  yet  the  Jews  had  the  Scriptures  al- 
though they  did  not  understand  them  and  theoretically  they 
knew  more  about  (Jod  than  any  other  people.  So  to  me,”  he 
went  on,  “it  is  a wonderful  thing  but  exactly"  right,  that  the 
.American  Christians  should  have  sent  the  gosijel  here  where  God 
was  known  and  yet  not  known.  The  Filipinos  were  like  the 
Athenians,  they  did  not  know  the  God  they  were  worshipping.  I 
say  that  I know  when  1 declare  that  Paul’s  words  wei-e  exactly 
line  of  us,  that  we  knew  God  and  worshipped  Him  not  as  God.” 
“1  can  only  say,”  added  a fourth  .si>eaker,  “that  formerly  there 
were  many  Christians  here  in  I’anay  who  were  murderers  and 
thieves  and  who  did  not  consider  themselves  any  the  less  Chris- 
tians on  that  account.  !Jvow  it  is  much  more  geuerallj"  known 
what  true  Christianity  is  but  we  need  still  more  sharpening  of 
the  moral  .sense.  Conscience  is  still  weak  among  us  and  needs 
to  be  nourished  into  a larger  vigor.”  “One  profound  need  among 
us,”  said  another,  “has  been  a religious  fellowship  founded  in 
love.  Something  of  this  kind  has  been  growing  up  thi*ough  the 
evangelical  church  but  we  need  nothing  more  than  the  religious 
influence  which  will  foster  such  an  ideal.  The  moral  needs  of 
our  people  and  the  moral  gains  which  have  been  brought  to 
them  by  evangelical  missions  are  the  warrant  you  are  asking 
about.”  “Any  nation  that  is  without  the  Bible,”  said  another, 
“has  a right  to  ask  for  it  and  to  expect  that  the  nations  which 
])ossess  it  will  bring  it.”  Two  women  spoke  next.  “It  is  true,” 
.said  one,  “that  practically  all  the  Filipino  people  wish  to  be  re- 
garded as  Christians,  but  by  Christ’s  law  that  by  their  fruits  ye 
.shall  know  them,  they  are  not  Christians,  and  the  gospel  should 
be  preached  to  them  just  as  to  other  people  and  as  to  the  whole 
world.”  “Perhaps  our  people  were  taught  much  truth,”  said  the 
other  woman,  a fearless  worker  who  often  herself  conducts 
preaching  seiwices  in  the  streets,  “but  they  were  not  given  the 
power  to  fulfil  it.”  “Even  if  we  were  Christians,”  declared  an- 
other, “was  that  any  reason  wh}’  the  Christians  of  other  countries 
should  not  come  to  help  us?  Did  not  the  apostles  in  Jerusalem 
send  a deputation  to  visit  the  Christians  at  Antioch.  Do  we 
uot  need  and  have  we  not  a right  to  all  that  we  can  gain  from 
other  Christians  anywhere?”  “What  the  missionaries  have 
brought,”  said  another,  before  we  passed  to  another  subject  of 
conversation,  “is  warrant  enough  for  their  bringing  it.  We  need 
nothing  more  than  such  pure  and  true  ideals  of  life  as  we  have 
seen  in  them.” 

A second  group  to  which  the  same  questions  were  put  repre- 
sented the  provinces  of  Sorsogon  and  Albay  at  the  southern  end 

230 


of  the  Island  of  Luzon.  The  emphasis  here  was  laid  on  the  pres- 
ent religious  conditions  and  the  inquiry  as  to  whether  the  Roman 
Church  was  not  meeting,  or  could  not  meet  these.  “In  Sorsogon,” 
said  the  first  speakei’,  “the  conditions  today  are  just  as  they  have 
been  in  previous  times.  The  people  continue  undisturbed  in 
their  old  religious  ideas.  They  still  believe  in  pilgrimages  and 
there  is  no  less  fanaticism  or  superstition  than  there  used  to  be 
in  trusting  saints  and  worshipping  at  miraculous  shrines.  The 
grip  of  the  church  is  as  strong  and  as  weak  as  ever.  Its  leaders 
preach  today,  as  before,  unquestioning  devotion  to  authority 
and  they  use  the  hard  times  comsequent  upon  drought  and  three 
successive  failures  of  our  crops  as  an  occasion  for  getting  masses 
said  and  atonement  made  for  past  religious  negligence.”  “I 
think  quite  differently,”  said  a second  speaker  from  Sorsogon. 
“Our  people  are  far  more  liberal  and  tolerant  than  they  used  to 
be  and  come  quite  readily  now  to  the  evangelical  church,  and 
the  best  peo]>le  among  us  have  swung  completely  away  from  the 
old  church  and  are  interested  to  know  what  it  is  that  evangelical 
Christianity  has  to  saj'  to  tlieir  minds  and  hearts.”  “The  old 
cliurch,”  said  the  ablest  man  in  the  group,  “simply  did  not  meet 
liunian  need  and  it  paralyzed  the  minds  of  the  young  men.  When 
I was  a boy  the  schools  were  conducted  by  the  church  and  their 
teachings  were  utterly  unsatisfying.  It  was  mere  routinism  and 
the  inculcation  of  formal  obedience  to  church  authority.  There 
was  nothing  living  and  real.  There  was  no  answer  to  the  ques- 
tions which  arose  in  young  men’s  minds  except  the  answer  of 
repression.  The  result  was  inevitable.  As  soon  as  political 
authority  was  broken,  the  attendance  at  mass  fell  away  and  now 
a small  fraction  of  the  population  attends.  Where  the  patron 
saint  of  a village  is  supposed  to  have  miraculous  power,  the  at- 
tendance on  the  annual  fiesta  day  is  great  as  at  Tievi,  where  Our 
Lady  of  Salvation  is  supposed  to  work  miracles.  But  elsewhere 
tlie  fiesta  is  just  a social  holiday  and  not  a religious  ceremony 
at  all.  The  moral  conditions  of  the  people  and  the  priesthood 
are  no  better  than  in  the  old  days  of  which  Rizal  wrote  in  ‘The 
Social  Cancer,’  and  away  from  the  immediate  seats  of  the  bishops 
the  immorality  of  the  i)riests  is  no  more  hidden  now  than  for- 
merly. The  bishop  did  remove  one  priest  down  here  when  it 
was  prove<l  in  court  that  he  had  a wife  and  twelve  children.  But 
the  i)riest  refused  to  leave  and  said  that  if  the  bishop  insisted 
he  would  take  off’  his  habit  and  stand  as  a candidate  for  the 
As.sembly,  .so  the  bi.shop  yielded  and  let  him  stay.  The  civil 
marriage  law  has  helped  the  moral  conditions,  but  the  priests 
fight  it  and  teach  uj)enly  that  it  is  not  valid  and  that  people 
civilly  married  may  be  married  to  .someone  else  bv  the  church.” 
This  conference  broke  out  at  this  point  into  a series  of  tales 
about  priests  and  it  seemed  better  to  drop  the  subject  and  to  ask 
imstead  what  the  greatest  defects  and  needs  of  our  Protestant 
churches  were. 

The.se  two  conferences  were  typical.  It  will  suffice  to  add  to 

231 


them  one  representative  imliviflnal  ojiinion.  He  was  a clever 
old  man  who  was  a member  of  the  town  council  in  a most  pic- 
lnres<pie  mnT)icii)i<>  in  Tayalias.  He  liad  bwm,  he  sai«l,  a mem- 
bei-  of  the  Homan  clmrch,  “a  tliird  dej^refi  mend)er  with  a hif' 
badge  on  his  heart”  as  he  expressed  it.  But  he  could  not  find 
anything  that  would  .satisfy  his  mind  (»r  inward  spirit.  He  stood 
and  stretched  his  anus  in  j)i-ayer  before  the  saints  but  he  got  no 
nourishment  to  his  .soul.  In  his  eager  search  for  truth  that 
would  content  him.  he  left  the  old  church  and  joined  the  Agli- 
payano.s,  but  found  nothing  there.  Then  he  heard  Mr.  Snook, 
the  first  evangelical  missionary  in  the  Tayabas  province,  pjreach- 
ing,  but  it  was  commonly  .said  among  the  peojile  that  his  mes- 
.sage  was  anti-Christian  and  demoniac.  The  old  man  was  timid 
and  stood  afar  ofi‘.  But  as  time  went  on  he  drew  nearer  and  at 
last  ])eeped  in  the  windows  where  Mr.  Snook  was  preaching,  and 
one  day  heard  what  he  described  as  “an  Holy  Spirit  Call”  and 
“was  convinced.”  After  that  he  lost  all  fear,  came  clear  in  across 
the  threshold,  and  now  was  satisfied.  No  more  with  outsti‘etche<l 
arms  before  the  saint  on  occa.sional  days,  but  every  night  upon 
his  knees  within  his  own  house  he  prayed,  and  God  was  near  to 
him  and  the  best  of  all  realities.  The  fir.st  chapter  of  John  was 
the  richest  of  all  written  words  to  him  and  life  held  for  him  now 
only  eagerness  and  joy.  The  glow  of  a sincere  and  actual  experi- 
ence was  in  the  old  man’s  account.  And  there  are  thousands  like 
him  who  if  the  right  of  evangelical  Christianity  to  he  in  the 
Philippine  Islands  is  to  be  tried  and  judge<l,  are  ready  to  appear 
as  witnesses. 

Are  not  such  simple  .statements  as  these  right  out  of  life,  suf- 
ficient answer  to  the  (pie.stion  whether  the  presence  of  our  ev- 
angelical missionaries  in  the  Philippine  Islands  is  justified? 
These  .simi)le  temperate  testimonies  show  that  there  was  some- 
thing which  these  hungry  .souls  did  not  have  and  could  not  get. 
something  to  which  they  had  a right  as  the  Father’s  children 
for  whom  the  Son  of  God  dietl.  With  the  coming  of  men  and 
women  who  gave  them  the  Bible  to  read  for  themselves  and  told 
them  simply  of  the  love  of  God  in  Christ  and  the  life  and  light 
which  are  as  free  to  every  man  in  Him  as  the  blue  skies  over 
these  Islands  or  the  blue  waters  around  their  .shores,  a new  day 
began  for  these  people  What  more  needs  to  be  said?  Miist  the 
dawn  jinstify  itself  and  life  make  apologies  because  it  is?  With 
no  abu.se,  and  abstaining  from  all  harsh  and  sweeping  indict- 
ment, it  is  enough  to  say  that  there  was  spiritual  and  moral  need 
in  the  Philippine  Lslands  which  justified  the  coming  of  any  men 
and  women  of  pure  and  loving  hearts.  That  spiritual  and  moral 
need  is  here  still  and  not  only  are  the  mi.ssionaries  who  have 
come  to  deal  with  it  justified  in  their  presence,  but  from  eveiw 
island  in  the  Phili])pines  Christ  calls  for  more  men  and  women 
like  them  of  whatsoever  church  they  may  be,  to  let  His  light 
shine  and  His  life  work  here  where  the  need  is  real  and  where 
no  ecclesiastical  monopoly  has  any  right  to  keep  Christ’s  sheep 
hungry  and  in  the  dark. 


232 


If  anyone  doubts  the  need  or  warrant  for  every  spiritnal  ser- 
vice whicli  can  he  rendered  to  the  Philippine  peoples,  he  needs 
only  to  come  and  see  the  conditions  for  himself,  to  mingle  with 
the  people,  to  realize  the  religious  lapse  and  destitution,  to 
mark  the  multitudes  who  do  not  need  to  be  enticed  from  one 
fold  to  another  hut  who  are  as  sheej)  without  a shepherd,  having 
no  fold  at  all.  The  work  of  the  American  Episcopal  church  in 
the  Philippines  was  begun  with  no  reference  to  the  nominally 
Christian  people  of  the  Islands.  It  held  itself  as  limited  strictly 
to  the  non-Christian  tribes  and  to  such  American  j)eople  as  were 
open  to  its  ministry.  But  its  missionaries  would  have  been  no 
true  Tiiinisters  of  Christ,  if  once  drawn  to  the  Philippine  Islands 
by  these  calls,  they  had  here  been  deaf  to  the  other  voices  ap- 
jiealing  from  every  side,  voices  of  irreligion,  of  unbelief,  of  moral 
need,  of  intellectual  hunger,  of  ])hysical  suffering,  of  helpless 
groping  on  tlie  part  of  yonng  men  and  young  women,  with  their 
old  ancliorage  gone  and  beaten  by  heavy  storms.  Could  Chris- 
tian men  stand  mute  and  inactive  before  such  need?  ?sot  if 
they  were  lo  conliniie  to  be  ('hristian  men.  The  Ej)iscopal  mis- 
sionaries did,  accoi<lingly,  having  discovered  the  real  conditions, 
just  what  the  othei-  Amei-ican  missionaries  came  to  do,  having 
known  them  in  advance.  Next  to  the  hos]>ital  which  has  done 
and  is  d(»ing  a Cliristlike  service,  a beautiful  church  has  now 
b(*(*n  built  with  a deacon  from  a mission  of  the  Ejjiscopal  church 
in  another  Latin  land  and  a membershi])  is  growing  uj)  of  the 
same  kind  of  yonng  men  and  women  as  have  been  gathered  and 
are  being  gatlier(‘d  all  through  the  Islands,  into  the  churches  of 
the  other  American  missions.  It  is  not  intrusion  for  any  Ameri- 
can church  to  he  doing  this  work  in  the  IMiilipi>ine  Islands  or 
in  any  other  land. 

Bishop  Brent  has  stat(>d  the  mattei-  in  his  own  strong  way  in 
a statement  which  he  was  kind  enough  to  give  me  on  ‘‘Catholicity 
and  Intrusion.” 

Si)eaking  of  pajialism  as  “llalf-Kome”  and  an  exclusive  auti- 
pai)alism  as  the  “Other-IIalf-Kome.”  he  goes  on,  “There 
is  also  a ‘Tertium  t^uid.’  There  are  those  grou])-Christians 
which  ch(H*rfully  accord  all  other  gron])-Christians,  on  the  right 
hand  and  on  the  left,  a j)lace  in  the  sun.  They  abstain  from 
universal  indict immts.  Wecognizing  that  no  one  fragment,  how- 
ever bulky,  of  a shattered  Christendom  jios.se.sses  a monopoly 
either  of  truth  or  of  righteousness,  Tertium  Quid  finds  it.self 
incom]»etent  to  dictate  terms  to,  or  to  pose  as  the  reformer  of, 
the  morals  of  any  othei-  grouj)  of  Christians  hut  it.self.  With 
clear-cut  convictions  of  its  own,  it  is  not  hasty  to  enter  the  en- 
tanglement of  formal  treaties  or  ententes.  Be.spect  for  the  posi- 
tion of  others  is  not  allowed  to  dictate  terms  injurious  to  self- 
re.spect.  Self-resjiect,  on  the  othei-  haml,  is  not  allowed  to  dis- 
i-egard  the  courtesies  and  services  due  to  others.  The  ideal  is 
sii(-h  unity  of  sjiirit  as  will  express  itself  in  fellowshij)  and  con- 
ference with  other  grouji-Christians,  who  are  striving  to  reach 


a fuller  conception  of  God’s  will.  Tertiunj  Quid  i.s  for  the  mo- 
ment shy  of  crystallizing  the  results  of  conference  into  legisla- 
tion because  certain  group-Christians  are  too — let  us  saj*,  shy, 
ever  to  confer  with  other  group-Christians.  Partial  conference 
whether  at  Trent  or  Hampton  Court  or  Edinburgh,  can  reach 
only  tentative  conclusions.  It  were  presumptuous  and  perilous 
to  pretend  otherwi.se.  Tertium  Quid,  therefore,  ought  not  mere- 
ly to  confer  but  should  also  try,  iu  the  absence  of  tho.se  who  are 
.still  too  .shy  to  confer,  to  do  justice  to  the  contentions  of  the  ab- 
sentees. They  will  receive  no  decoration  for  so  doing,  but  it  i.s 
an  in.si)iring  obligation  at  close  quarters,  however  forbidding  its 
countenance  viewed  from  afar. 

“When  it  comes  to  the  extension  of  the  organized  operations 
of  Tertium  Quid  the  situation  takes  on  a delicate  complexion. 
Like  all  other  group-Chri.stians  it  claims  world  wide  commis- 
sion. The  unevangelized  in  any  country  call  for  consideration 
and  possibly  for  action.  There  is  no  serious  difficulty  here.  The 
only  real  problem  is  what  could  be  done  in  relation  to  Latin- 
Christian  countries  which,  with  one  voice  or  another,  attract  at- 
tention or  cry  for  succor.  Part  of  the  problem  has  already  .^^olv- 
ed  itself.  Any  group-Christians  who  believe  themselves  to  pos- 
sess national  character  must  follow  the  flag  in  order  to  minister 
to  their  fellow  nations.  Near  Louisiana  and  the  far  Philippines 
i'e(]uire  Ihe  same  treatment  from  Tertium  Quid.  We  go  there 
partly  because  each  is  American  territory  and  partly  because 
the  church  of  the  country  does  not  feel  ju.stified  in  ministering 
lo  our  j)eo])le  as  Chri.stians.  Once  there,  the  relation.ship  to 
‘Half-Pome’  and  the  ‘Other  Half-Pome’  is  just  what  it  is  at 
home.  There  is  the  same  duW  to  lapsed  Christians  from  the 
fragment  of  the  Church  that  dominates,  that  there  is  in  ISIan- 
land  or  New  York — that  and  no  more. 

“Our  church  has,  as  is  recorded  in  the  pages  of  this  volume, 
by  her  action,  also  taken  the  position  of  Tertium  Quid  in  Mexico 
whence,  years  .since,  a cry  for  succor  issued.  The  appeal  of 
distressed  conditions  of  faith  and  morals  took  individual  mis- 
sionaries to  Brazil,  and  later  our  church  endorsed  their  action 
by  organizing  there.  Contiguity,  increa.sing  American  immigra- 
(ion  and  a growing  body  of  unchurched  Christians  carrie^l  us 
<0  Cuba. 

“Hence  we  are  irrevocably  committed  to  intrusion  by  our 
definite  action.  We  are  neither  in  a po.sition  to  reform  the 
Christianity  of  the  countries  concerned  nor  could  we  handle  the 
situation  if  the  Latin  Chux’ch  withdrew  and  we  had  the  field  to 
ourselves.  Pepudiation  of  our  past  coxir.se  is  inconceivable.  The 
sole  question  is  in  what  spirit  we  shall  continue.  The  answer 
undoubtedly  is  we  must  continue  in  a Catholic  temper. . . .When 
it  comes  to  a Latin  countiw,  the  Catholic  temper  should  rise  in 
invei’se  I'atio  to  the  monoixolistic  spii-it  when  it  frowns  on  us  as 
intnxdei’s.  It  is  one  of  the  freest,  though  by  no  means  the  hap- 
piest, experiences  of  the  Christian  life  to  keep  a friendly  spirit 

234 


and  maintain  a level  justice  in  the  face  of  rei)udiation,  hostility 
and  hatred.” 

The  presence  of  missionaries  in  the  Philippine  Islands  to  re- 
enforce whatever  spiritual  energies  are  at  work  and  to  do  work 
which  will  otherwise  not  he  done  is  not  an  intrusion  upon  any 
one’s  preserve  nor  an  invasion  of  a field  which  any  one  else  can 
claim.  It  is  as  clear  an  obedience  to  duty  and  the  call  of  God 
as  could  be  found.  And  yet  it  would  not  be  fair  or  true  to  fail 
to  recognize  the  work  that  has  been  done  in  the  Islands.  “There,” 
as  Bishop  Brent  says,  “whatever  superstitions  and  vices  there 
have  been  and  are.  the  Boman  Catholic  church  with  the  weapon 
of  the  cross  has  saved  the  millions  who  inhabit  the  archipelago 
from  the  same  sure  fate  from  which  Charles  Martel  with  the 
hammer  of  war  saved  Gaul,  from  the  unconquered,  if  not  the  un- 
conquerable curse  of  Mohammedanism.”  The  Boman  Catholic 
church  has  done  a great  work  of  general  religious  instruction 
and  enlightenment.  Intellectual  fouudations  have  been  laid 
which  one  does  not  find  anywhere  else  in  eastern  Asia.  The 
whole  thought  and  spirit  of  mind  is  different  from  what  one 
meets  in  Siam.  There  the  tliought  of  God  is  insecure,  dubious, 
half-denied.  Here  tlie  Iheistic  faith  is  clear.  There  Buddhkst 
ideas  of  fate  and  rebirth  have  blunted  the  sense  of  personality 
and  stunted  the  growth  of  those  notions  of  responsibility  and 
duty  which  are  the  essential  stufl'  of  character.  Here  the  Chris- 
tian forms  of  tliought  hav(*  been  inbred  and  tliough  the  hold  of 
tlie  Church  is  gone  and  men  liave  wandered  far  away,  they  carry 
with  them  the  remembrance  that  once  they  were  baptized  into 
tlie  name  of  .lesus  Christ.  It  is  very  different  in  the  Pbilippines, 
also  fi-om  South  .\merica.  Beasoned  rationali.sm.  Comtism, 
naturalistic  aguostici.sni,  have  not  made  tlie  ravages  in  the  Phil- 
ipjiines  that  they  have  in  South  America.  !Mauy  new  and  re- 
spectful thoughts  came  to  me  one  night  in  Iloilo  as  I heard  !Mr. 
Doltz  at  the  close*  of  an  evangelistic  meeting  for  students  re- 
mind them  that  they  had  all  been  baptized  into  Christ’s  name, 
that  the  appeal  In*  was  making  to  (hem  was  an  ajijieal  to  a fa- 
miliar loyalty.  lie  did  not  need  to  ask  them  to  believe.  With 
most  of  them  the  belief  was  already  there.  He  needed  to  call 
* them  to  the  reality  of  moral  obedience  and  in  the  hush  of  the 
(|iiiet  tropical  night  one  after  another  signed  his  name  to  the 
statement  that  was  to  transmute  a ri'ceding  nieinory  into  a re- 
ality of  character,  “I  jtromise  God  to  study  the  words  of  -lesus 
Christ  and  with  llis  lielji  to  make  them  the  jirinciples  of  my  life.” 
Would  that  those  men  in  the  Boman  church  who  believe  in  .lesus 
Christ  the  Son  of  God  and  who  have  made  His  words  the  prin- 
ciples of  their  lives  might  come  to  dominate  that  great  organiza- 
tion and  more  of  them  take  their  part  in  making  the  church  what 
it  ought  to  be  in  these  Islands. 

B.  E.  S. 


2.35 


4.  (^T’ESTIOXS  OF  I'OLirv  AND  METHOD  IN  THE 
ITIIIJIMMNE  MISSION 


I ]iav(*  already  rel'erred  lo  tlie  siiri)i'isiiifj  reseinblaiice  between 
I lie  ])bysical  eonditions  of  life  in  the  Philippine  Islands  and  in 
Siam.  Even  more  surprisin';  is  the  comjdete  unlikeness  in  the 
sjiirit  of  the  jieojile  and  tlieii*  intellectual  and  economic  condi- 
tions. Instead  of  the  lethar<;y  and  indilferentism  which  lie 
slee])ily  ujion  the  life  of  Siam  we  meet  here  in  the  Philippines 
with  an  energy,  a vi”(M-.  an  ambition  which  are  very  different 
from  what  is  met  in  Siam.  It  is  easy  to  speak  depreciatinfrly  of 
this  sjiirit  in  the  Philippines,  to  say  that  it  is  not  oriffinal  but 
communicated  and  sustained  from  without,  that  it  falls  far  short 
of  matchinj;  the  initiative  and  resourcefnlness  and  tension  of 
the  teni])er  of  some  of  the  people  in  the  temperate  zone.  That 
is  (piite  true,  but  it  is  e<pially  true  that  thei'e  are  other  temper- 
ate zone  ])eo])le  who  do  not  display  at  the  pre.sent  time  the  spirit 
which  is  abroad  in  the  Philippines,  and  the  right  comparisons 
to  make  are  not  between  these  Islands  and  the  great  northern 
nations,  but  between  these  Islands  and  other  nations  subject  to 
the  same  climatic  conditions.  Such  comjiarisons  leave  one  with 
a feeling  of  strong  hope  and  confidence  with  i-egard  to  the  Fil- 
ipinos if  they,  are  not  deprived  of  the  moral  and  educational  in- 
tlueuces  which  have  produced  the  present  conditions  among  them. 
This  impression  of  difference  between  the  Philippine  Islands 
and  some  of  the  other  tropical  states  where  we  had  been,  while 
it  began  with  our  first  contact  with  the  Islands,  only  came  to 
ifs  full  strength  gradually  as  we  went  from  i.sland  to  i.sland 
and  realized  slowly  how  difficult  the  ta.sk  had  been,  how  wise 
and  effective  on  the  whole  the  processes  of  progress,  and  how 
encouraging  in  sjiite  of  all  drawbacks  is  the  result.  The  fact 
that  the  Philippines  are  an  archipelago  of  thousands  of  islands 
and  not  a solid  piece  of  contiguous  territory,  the  consequent  di- 
vision of  the  people  into  innumerable  local  groups  with  their 
own  dialects  and  separated  in  interest  and  life  from  their  neigh- 
bors, the  oligarchical  goveriimeiit  which  deemed  the.se  divisions 
of  the  jieople  desirable  and  used  them  as  a means  of  preventing 
unification,  the  want  of  communications  between  the  islands  and 
of  good  roads  on  the  islands  between  the  different  communities, 
the  inequality  and  irregularity  of  taxation  with  its  consequences 
in  the  di.scouragement  of  thrift,  the  total  absence  of  banks,  sav- 
ings institutions  and  all  agencies  for  mutual  benefit  and  im- 
provement, the  discouragement  of  individual  initiative  and  suc- 
cess and  the  building  u])  instead  of  great  estates  resting  upon 
])eonage,  the  control  of  many  of  these  estates  by  the  church  which 
also  dominated  education,  determined  its  character  and  extent, 
and  co-oi)erated  with  the  state  in  preserving  the  divisive  dia- 

236 


lects  and  limiting  the  acquisition  of  Spanish  to  the  small  aris- 
tocratic and  govei-ning  class, — rliese  were  the  influences  that  had 
to  be  overcome  and  wliicli  tlie  agencies  of  goveinmenl  and  in- 
dustry and  education  have  lK‘en  steadily  overcoming  since  the 
date  of  American  occupation. 

The  mere  pre.sence  in  the  Islands  of  the  American  (jovernment 
with  its  political  ])rinciples.  not  .so  much  expressed  as  simply 
a.ssumed,  and  the  irrepre.ssihle  democratic  .spirit  of  its  adminis- 
tration which  neither  racial  i)rejudice  nor  militarism  can  ever 
transform  into  “ini]>eriali.sm,”  has  breathed  through  the  whole 
Islands  a real  measure,  however  small  as  yet,  of  the  temper  which 
made  and  kee])s  us  a democracy  at  home.  Steamship  lines  and 
roads  have  opened  channels  for  trade  and  intercourse  and  the 
interflow  of  life  I never  realized  as  clearly  as  in  the  Philippine 
Islands  the  moral  and  intellectual  influence  of  good  roads.  Ideas 
as  well  as  commerce  run  upon  them  and  they  melt  out  the  petty 
local  dialects  which  grow  up  even  among  separated  villages.  A 
merchant  at  Los  Banos  told  us  that  ten  years  ago  on  his  way  over 
what  was  then  the  road  between  Los  Banos  and  Bay  a few  miles 
away,  his  hoi*se  had  stuck  in  the  mud  and  he  was  obliged  to 
abandon  it  and  go  into  Bay  for  assistance.  On  his  return  he 
found  only  the  ears  of  the  animal  sticking  out  of  the  mud.  That 
was  the  fate  of  ideas  as  well  as  beasts  in  those  days,  only  as  a 
rule  not  so  much  even  as  the  eai-s  projected.  Xow  over  the  most 
beautiful  roads  the  carts  of  hemj)  and  sugar  cane  and  of  coj)ra 
move  as  easily  as  they  would  on  our  best  roads  at  home  and 
ideas  of  unity,  of  common  interest,  of  free  movement  of  minds 
as  well  as  of  things,  an*  ]»ervading  the  Islands.  Trade  has  qnad- 
rui)led  since  the  Sj»anish  times,  banks  furnish  the  means  of  a 
freer  commercial  life  and  are  aiding  the  farmers,  rich  and  j)oor, 
in  develojung  their  lands  and  hainlling  their  crops,  and  to  lift 
the  .sugar  i)rodnction  of  the  Islands  which  is  now  only  S.")  piculs 
per  hectare  upwar<l  toward  the  level  of  ])roduction  in  the  Ha- 
waiian ])lantations  of  200  i)icnls.  If  tin*  sugar  farmers  are  ask- 
ing for  more  government  aid  than  they  can  economically  justify, 
what  is  that  but  an  additional  evidence  that  the  Filij)inos  are 
raj)idly  absorbing  the  ideas  of  the  modern  world?  Most  influ- 
ential of  all  the  agencies  of  change  which  are  at  work  iji  the 
Islands  widening  the  dissimilai-ity  (»f  which  we  have  sjmken  be- 
tween the  Philij)pines  and  Siam  are  the  .schools,  as  has  been 
already  pointed  out.  The  oj)en  j)ur])Ose  of  the  schools,  publicly 
avowed,  and  the  v(*ry  avowal  carrying  with  it  an  emancipating 
influence,  was  to  ]»rej)are  a larger  i)ortion  of  the  Filipino  peoj)le 
for  j)<irticij»ation  in  a democratic  foiin  of  government.  At  j)re.s- 
ent  under  a sutfrage  (pialitication  which  allows  anyone  to  vote 
who  has  the  ability  to  read  or  speak  Fnglish  or  Spanish,  or  who 
has  hehl  certain  modest  gra<ies  of  ollice  in  local  gcjvernment,  or 
who  has  property  of  an  asses.sed  valuation  (jf  .jOO  pe.sos,  one  per 
cent,  of  the  iH*oj)le  are  enr(dh*<l  as  voters.  This  is  not  a unique 
situation.  In  British  (Juiana  out  of  a i)opulation  of  278,000 

237 


there  are  only  2,81  re^istere^l  voters,  and  in  Barbadoes  out  of 
a population  of  192,000  only  2,044.  But  such  a percentage  is 
wofully  inade<piafe  nnd  the  delil)eiat(*  purpose  of  the  schools 
has  been  to  promote  democracy  by  increa.sing  the  number  of 
cpialified  electors.  In'  giving  the  j)eoi)le  a common  speech,  and  by 
democratizing  society.  As  the  Director  of  Education  says  in  his 
fifteenth  annual  report,  the  neces.sary  ju-eparation  of  the  Filip- 
ino people  for  participation  in  democratic  government  “included 
first  of  all  giving  them  the  opportunity  of  acquiring  a common 
language  as  a stej)  of  prime  importance  in  the  development  of 
national  unity.  Tlie  selection  of  English  as  this  language  meant 
contact  willi  ideals  compatible  with  democratic  government,  and 
the  a])])ointment  of  Ameiican  teachers  meant  contact  with  these 
ideals  embodied  in  j)ei-.sonalities  and  therefore  in  the  form  most 
potent  to  influence  the  Filipino  youth.  The  effective  carrying 
out  of  this  ])olicy  depended,  not  so  much  upon  the  establishment 
of  a democratic  form  of  government,  as  upon  the  development  of 
a truly  democratic  social  organization.  Athletics  and  indus- 
trial work  have  contributed  much  toward  the  democratization 
of  the  i»eople,  and  all  phases  of  school  activities  have  worked 
together  to  ju'omole  the  growth  of  a middle  class  which,  experi- 
ence has  ])roved,  is  a rwpiisite  for  successful  j)opular  government. 

“Definite  training  for  citizenship  is  given  in  the  primary’,  in- 
termediate, and  .secondarj'  cour.ses.  In  grades  III  and  IV,  village 
improvement  societies  are  organized  whose  members  receive 
practice  in  holding  deliberative  meetings,  and  discuss  the  needs 
of  the  municipality  with  reference  to  sanitation,  roads,  public 
buildings,  and  government.  These  societies  at  times  organize  as 
municipal  councils  to  consider  que.stions  of  this  sort.  Such  so- 
cieties took  a prominent  part  in  the  activities  of  ‘clean-up-week.’ 
December  14-20,  1914,  and  throughout  the  }'ear  do  much  to  im- 
prove streets,  plazas  and  school  and  home  premises.  More  ad- 
vanced in.struction  in  citizen.ship  is  given  in  the  intermediate 
and  secondary  courses,  and  various  societies  of  pupils  afford 
practice  in  conducting  meetings  at  which  (piestious  of  interest  to 
all  citizens  are  often  discussed.  This  training  is  bound  to  have 
its  influence  upon  the  electorate,  which,  in  ten  more  year.s,  Avill 
be  comj)osed  largely  of  graduates  of  at  least  the  primary  course 
ill  the  public  schools.  A boy  who  has  completed  the  primary 
course  is  qualified  by  education  to  be  an  elector  and,  under  pre.s- 
ent  law,  practically  all  future  increases  in  the  electorate  will 
consist  of  tho.se  who  will  qualify  on  account  of  their  knowledge 
of  English,  rather  than  on  account  of  the  possession  of  property 
or  the  holding  of  ottice  under  the  Spanish  regime. 

“The  imblic  schools  are  making  a notable  contribution  to  the 
body  politic.  Of  the  voters  wiio,  at  the  present  time,  are  quali- 
fied as  electors  because  they  possess  certain  educational  qualifica- 
tions, a considerable  percentage  claim  an  education  in  English. 
During  the  school  year  1912-13,  10,938  Imys  completed  the  pri- 
mary course.  During  the  school  year  1913-14,  11,398  boys  corn- 

238 


pleted  the  same  course.  These  22,336  boys,  potential  electors, 
the  out])ut  of  tlie  primary  trades  of  the  public  schools  of  the 
Islands  for  only  (wo  yeais,  (Minal  a]>proximately  221/^  per  ceuT. 
of  the  i)resent  nnml)er  of  electors  claiming  educational  qualiti- 
cations;  and  the  number  of  boys  who  graduate  from  the  primary 
course  is  bound  to  increase  steadily 

“The  public  schools  have  not  only  created  an  enthusiasm  for 
education,  but  have  also  played  an  important  part  in  the  gen- 
eral intellectual  awakening  which  is  taking  place,  and  which  is 
an  indisx)ensable  condition  of  civic  etbciency.  Outside  the  public 
schools  the  chief  evidence  of  this  awakening  is  the  great  increase 
in  newspapers  and  in  the  number  of  their  subscribers,  the  in- 
creased purchase  of  books  and  use  of  libraries,  and  the  growth 
and  improvement  of  the  jjrivate  schools.  By  spreading  informa- 
tion and  stimulating  thought,  the  schools  and  allied  agencies 
are  laying  the  foundation  for  enlightened  public  opinion  and  an 
electorate  that  comjirehends  its  res^mnsibilities.  . . . It  is  diffi- 
cult to  estimate  with  any  degree  of  exactness  the  amount  of 
English  spoken  in  the  l’hilii)X)ines.  It  is  safe  to  say,  however, 
that  the  knowledge  of  English  is  far  more  general  than  the 
knowledge  of  Sjjanish.” 

In  singling  out  the  schools  in  this  way  it  is  easy  to  do  an  in- 
justice to  the  other  agencies  which  have  contributed  to  i)ro- 
ducing  the  i)resent  conditions  in  (he  Bhilijjjjine  Islands.  As  a 
matter  of  fact  the  schools  are  only  j)art  of  a whole  movement 
which  cannot  l)e  divided.  What  has  ha])j)ened,  has  hax)pened  as 
the  result  of  the  total  impact  of  a new  view  and  spirit  of  life 
upon  the  mind  of  a resj)onsive  and  not  unprepared  x>eople.  The 
honesty,  efficiency  and  ability  of  the  insular  government,  the  in- 
tegrity and  ju.stice  of  the  courts,  the  entei']>ri.se  of  business,  have 
all  contributed  and  indeed  the  schools  and  the  courts  are  but 
subordinate  functions  of  the  insular  .government  which  deserves 
the  credit  for  what  has  bwn  accomx)lished  so  far  as  that  credit 
falls  to  governmental  agencies.  The  government  itself,  however, 
has  btHMi  but  an  exj)re.s.sion  of  the  democratic  sj)irit,  the  spirit  of 
tspiality  and  of  moral  resx)ousibility,  and  it  is  not  claiming  too 
much  in  behalf  of  missions  to  as.sert  that  taking  into  considei-a- 
(ion  the  number  of  missionaries  and  the  amount  that  they  have 
had  to  ex])end  upon  their  work,  no  other  agency  has  wielded  as 
great  an  influence  in  this  movement  of  releasing  the  mind  and 
inspiring  (he  heart  of  the  Filij)ino  i)eople.  It  is  to  .some  of  the 
(piestions  and  policies  of  the  work  of  onr  own  mission  which, 
with  the  Methodist  Mission,  began  the  evangelical  occupation  of 
the  Islands,  that  we  now  turn. 

I.  Our  Evdiif/rJisfic  Work  (iixl  the  FiUpino  Church.  In  the 
character  of  onr  (wangelistic  woi-k  in  (he  I*hilij)pines  and  in 
the  independence  and  self-snp])ort  of  the  Filij»ino  church  we 
had  expected  to  find  in  coming  to  the  Islands  just  such  a dif- 
ference from  the  conditions  of  the  work  in  the  church  in  some 
of  the  older  mission  fields  as  we  have  described  as  exisfing  be- 

239 


tween  the  political  ami  educational  c<nidition.s  in  the  Philippines 
and  analag'ons  conditions  in  Siam.  The  Philippines  are  the 
latest  mission  field  entered  l)v  onr  church.  The  work  had  the 
f>reat  advanta}>e,  at  the  he{?innin<i,  of  the  experience  of  men 
trained  iji  other  missions  and  conscious  of  any  mistakes  of  policy 
which  they  had  made  and  of  the  imjiortance  of  right  beginnings 
in  the  Philippines.  What  had  been  accoyiplished  in  Koi*ea  and 
Uganda  where,  beginning  afresh,  with  the  le.ssons  of  missionary 
experience  taught  in  old  field.s,  it  had  been  found  jm.ssible  to 
build  uj)  great  indei)endent  churches,  self-propagating  and  .self- 
supporting  from  the  beginning,  was  before  the  minds  of  the  tii*st 
missionaries  in  the  Philii)i)ines.  They  were  familiar  also  with 
the  lessons  to  be  drawn  from  the  successes  and  failures  of  the 
work  in  other  Latin  land.s.  Our  own  mission  began  with  the 
earnest  purijose  to  avoid  the  errors  made  elsewhei-e  and  to  de- 
velop the  church  in  the  Philippines  as  an  independent,  self-sup- 
porting organization  from  the  beginning.  The  thought  of  our 
tirst  missionaries  on  the  subject  is  embodied  in  the  following 
extract  from  a paper  which  one  of  them  read  before  the  Manila 
Mini.sters’  Association  at  the  outset  of  the  work  before  any  cen- 
tral ecclesiastical  body  had  been  formed. 

“As  soon  as  there  are  a few  churches  in  any  district,  let  rep- 
re.sentatives  of  these  churches  meet  regularly  for  conference  and 
mutual  helpfulness.  Such  conference  would  develop,  naturally, 
into  truly  representative  bodies,  which  would  soon  grow  into 
provincial  and  then  into  national  assemblies.  The  foreign  mi.s- 
siouary  should  be  on  the  outside  of  this  organization.  He  should 
exercise  no  authority  excei>t  over  such  workers  as  may  be  em- 
ploj'ees  of  distinctly  missionary  enterprises,  such  as  schools  and 
colportage  work.  He  can  be  an  advisory  member  and  exercise 
quite  as  much  iuHueiice  in  that  way  as  when  he  has  a vote.  If 
the  foreigner  is  a member  of  the  church  court,  then  the  native 
feels  no  responsibility  for  a long  time,  and  simply  does  what  he 
is  told  to  do.  When  he  does  attain  a spirit  of  independence,  he 
is  often  apt  to  use  race  and  not  reason  as  his  motive.  The  atti- 
tude of  the  different  mi.ssiouaries  should  be  that  of  helpers  and 
advisers,  rather  than  of  dictators.  They  should  work  along  as 
evangelists,  not  as  i^astors,  opening  new  fields,  raising  up  new 
churches,  advising  the  i)eoiile  and  caring  largely  for  the  educa- 
tional work,  and  especially  the  theological  training  of  the  min- 
istry. Up  to  the  time  that  the  individual  churches  ai*e  able  to 
support  themselves,  either  spiritually  or  financially,  I think  it 
would  be  well  to  keep  them  under  mission  direction.  As  for 
their  government  during  this  period,  the  less  and  the  simpler 
the  better.  I think  that  sometimes  the  missions  have  attempted 
to  put  too  large  an  armor  on  the  little  churches  and  have  felt 
that  because  the  system  of  church  govenimeut  that  they  follow 
is  good  at  home,  therefore  it  should  be  worked  down  to  its 
minutest  detail  on  the  mission  field.  Why  not  do  as  the  apostles 
did,  and  appoint  earnest  laymen  as  church  officers,  calling  them 

240 


elders,  or  deacons,  or  stewards,  or  wardens,  or  wdiatever  term 
seems  best?  The  Filipino  system  of  oovernment  by  cabozaz  de 
bavangaj^  is  similar;  and  as  Paul  used  the  existing  system,  wiiy 
should  we  not  adapt  the  social  habits  of  the  country  to  our 
neetls?  As  soon  as  churclies  reach  a stage  of  self-snj)port,  they 
should  be  made  members  of  the  national  Church,  ft  Avould  be 
a reward  to  hold  before  them.  A Board  of  Home  Mis.sious  and 
a Publication  Committee  could  be  easily  formed  and  the  work 
of  spreading  the  Gospel  taken  up  by  them.  There  are,  of  course, 
many  difficulties  that  can  be  seen  even  now',  and  w'ithout  doubt, 
many  more  will  a])pear  as  the  work  develops.  T sincerely  be- 
lieve, however,  that  they  will  not  be  as  great  as  tho.se  that  have 
accompanied  the  old  system  that  rules  in  many  of  the  mission 
fields.  This  plan  conserves  the  independent  action  of  the  mis- 
sions and  at  the  same  time  oi)ens  the  way  for  the  growth  of  an 
independent,  self-directing,  self-sui»i»ortiug  Filipino  Church.” 

Knowing  that  the  work  had  been  begun  in  the  Philippines 
with  these  ideals  we  had  expected  to  find  there  conditions  re- 
vsembling  tho.se  in  Korea  rather  than  those  in  Mexico  and  others 
of  the  older  fields  and  often  as  we  moved  about  among  the  dif- 
ficulties and  discouragements  of  the  work  in  Siam  we  j)romised 
one  another  that  in  the  Philip])ines  we  would  find  a different 
.situation,  with  the  churches  aglow  with  the  spirit  of  activity, 
directing  their  own  administration,  and  supporting  their  pas- 
tors and  church  expenses.  Instead  we  find  here  not  the  churches 
of  Fganda,  Korea,  or  Japan,  but  very  much  the  same  conditions 
which  exist  in  all  the  older  mission  fields.  There  is  a great  deal 
of  earnest  voluntary  evangelism  to  which  almost  every  new'  con- 
gregation can  be  trace<l,  but  there  is  the  same  need  of  arousing 
and  sustaining  the  evangelistic  s]>irit  both  among  j)reachers  and 
church  members  that  there  is  in  Mexico  or  Syria  or  Peking. 
There  is  not  a fully  self-sui»])orting  church  anywhere  in  the 
mi.ssion.  There  are  two\  churches  which  are  meeting  their  ]>as- 
tors’  salaries,  but  they  worshij)  in  buildings  erected  and  main- 
taiiiHl  by  the  mission.  There  is  an  independent  synod,  but  only 
one  of  its  j)resbyteries  is  really  conducted  by  the  Filij)inos. 
Some  of  the  others  depend  wholly  upon  their  foreign  missionary 
members  and  without  them  would  not  even  meet.  The  .situation 
is  not  due  to  any  abandonment  by  the  missionaries  of  the  prin- 
ciples with  which  they  began,  but  it  illustrates  the  difficulty  of 
adhering  to  and  carrying  through  a i-ifjht  missionary  j)olicy  and 
it  illustrates  also  the  special  difficulties  w'hich  have  been  met 
in  the  IMulipjiines.  Without  spending  time  upon  explanations 
as  to  how'  onr  jiresent  conditions  aro.se,  it  will  be  wiser  to  con- 
sider what  the  facts  are  and  to  suggest  how  w'e  should  deal 
with  them. 

1.  It  is  desirable  that  the  mission  and  the  Board  should  fix 
clearly  in  mind  the  order  of  emjdiasis  re<piire<l  in  the  employ- 
ment of  our  time  and  strength  and  financial  resources.  AVe  have 

241 


no  hesitation  in  sa3nng  that  viewing  the  conditions  in  the  Phil- 
ippines comproliensively  and  considering  the  actual  facts  with 
whicli  we  have  to  deal  at  llie  ))i-esent  lime,  (he  enii)hasis  should 
l)e  tirsi  upon  the  evangelistic  itinei-ating  work,  the  establish 
nient  of  new  cliurclies  ami  the  stimulation  and  guidance  of  the 
churches  already  established  toward  s^df-support  and  a more 
aggressive  evangelistic  work,  second,  ui)on  the  evangelistic  op- 
portunity among  students,  especially  the  boys  and  girls  in  the 
liigh  schools,  third,  upon  our  educational  work  in  Silliman  In- 
stitute and  the  training  schools  of  the  mission,  fourth,  on  the 
work  among  the  American  community  in  the  few  centers  among 
our  stations  where  the  community  is  large  enough  to  make  a 
systematic  woi*k  possible  and  where  there  is  no  church  provision 
for  its  care,  and  fifth,  upon  the  medical  work.  Any  enlarge- 
ment of  the  medical  work  at  least  should  surely  come  after  we 
have  more  ade(]uately  cared  for  these  other  responsibilities.  The 
maintenance  of  the  medical  work  we  already  have  in  Iloilo  ought 
to  be  included,  however,  among  our  tir.st  responsibilities.  It  will 
be  a great  advantage  to  keep  such  a j)olicy  of  emphasis  as  this, 
if  our  judgment  in  the  matter  is  riglit,  clear  before  our  minds 
in  the  development  of  the  woik  in  the  Philippines  and  not  to  be 
mi.sled  from  it  by  oi)portunist  arguments  or  by  the  pressure  of 
transient  circumstances.  One  great  weakiiess  of  our  missionary 
work  is  the  ease  with  which  wise  and  deliberately  adopted  mis- 
sion policies  are  set  aside  in  response  to  conditions  which  should 
be  made  to  beud  to  the  policy  and  not  be  allowed  to  over-ride  it. 
And  it  is  not  more  important  that  the  Board  should  have  some 
such  policy  of  develoi)inent  as  this  in  control  of  its  appointments 
and  appropriations  than  it  is  that  each  member  of  the  mi.s.sion 
should  govern  by  it  his  use  of  time  and  his  own  program  of  work. 

2.  In  the  second  place  we  should  seek  in  the  most  earnest 
waj"^  to  recover  Avhere  we  have  lost  it  and  to  create  where  it  has 
not  been,  a deep  and  .steady  evangelistic  momentum.  The  rea- 
sons given  by  a number  of  the  Filipino  preachers  for  the  sub- 
isidence  of  some  of  the  early  evangelistic  enthusiasm  have  al- 
ready been  quoted  together  with  the  suggestion  of  some  of  them 
that  when  the  independence  question  has  been  settled  and  the 
mind  of  the  people  set  at  rest  with  regard  to  it,  an  opportunity 
will  return  better  than  any  that  we  have  had.  In  other  Latin 
fields  besides  the  Philipi)ine  Islands  and  even  in  mis.sions  like 
Korea  and  Japan,  the  subsidence  of  an  early  zeal  in  the  work  of 
propagandism  is  not  unknown.  The  older  native  workers  in 
Mexico  often  look  back  longingly  to  the  eagerness  of  the  evan- 
gelistic  zeal  which  marked  the  evangelical  churches  in  the  first 
Hush  of  their  joy  at  discovering  the  gospel.  I have  he;\rd  the 
men  in  Michoacan  tell  of  the  early  days  when  the  believers  car- 
ried their  Bibles  with  them  to  the  fields  that  they  might  read 
them  at  the  noon  day  rest  and  when  along  the  hillsides  at  night 
the  torch  gleams  marked  the  worshipi)ers  gathering  for  Bible 
reading  and  prayer.  Even  in  our  home  churches  there  ai*e  mul- 

242 


titudes  to  whom  the  question  in  Cowper’s  hymn  is  an  unhappy 
reality, 

“Where  is  the  blessedness  1 knew 
When  first  I saw  the  Lord?” 

The  psychology'  of  the  Cliristian  life  is  the  same  in  all  lands  and 
the  tides  ebb  and  flow  in  mission  churches  just  as  they  do  at 
home.  The  ideal,  however,  is  that  they  should  flow  and  not  ebb 
and  we  must  resolutely  refuse  in  every  mission  field  to  accept 
the  unsatisfactory  facts  of  Christian  life  in  the  western  churches 
as  the  necessaiy  forms  of  church  life  everywhere.  We  have  a 
right  to  expect  and  a duty  to  work  for  a deeper  and  more  sus- 
tained evangelistic  activity'  among  the  foreign  mission  churches 
and  I believe  it  is  well  within  the  truth  to  say  that  it  exists 
there.  It  exists  in  the  Philippine  Islands,  but  it  does  not  exist 
strongly  enough.  The  liroblem  is  how  to  develop  it.  Some  of 
the  methods  by  which  this  can  be  done  are  the.se:  (1)  The  ex- 
ample of  constant  evangelization  and  itineration  on  the  part  of 
the  mis.siouaries.  The  evangelistic  spirit  cannot  be  taught  nor 
communicated  by  admonition.  It  can  only  be  caught  from  ex- 
ample. Theological  schools  in  which  men  are  told  that  they 
.should  be  evangelists  will  never  produce  evangelists.  If  mis- 
sionaries are  engaged  in  institutional  work  and  give  their  time 
to  teaching  and  administration,  the  young  men  of  the  native 
church  will  look  upon  these  things  as  the  best  things  to  do  and 
will  be  ambitious  to  .secure  positions  in  which  they  can  do  the 
same  kind  of  work  which  the}'  see  the  missionaries  doing.  Only 
an  evangelistic  mission  will  ])roduce  an  actually  evangelistic 
church.  The  reason  our  able.st  young  men  in  China  today  are 
becoming  teachei's  or  seeking  places  in  .some  form  of  institutional 
work  and  are  turning  aside  from  the  pastoral  and  preaching- 
work  of  the  ministry,  which  is  the  greatest  need  in  every  mi.ssion 
field,  is  that  they  se(^  the  missionaries  doing  just  this  very  thing. 
To  make  the  church  evangelistic  mi.ssionaries  themselves  need  to 
remember  the  admonition  of  Paul  to  Timothy,  who  was  set  in 
episcopal  i-e.sj)onsibililies  to  carry  on  a work  of  organization  and 
administration,  but  who  was  sj)ecilically  charged  himself  also 
to  “do  the  work  of  an  evangelist.”  If  he  did  not  do  it  no  amount 
of  episcoi)al  exhortation  on  his  part  would  breed  evangelists 
under  him  and  around  him.  (2)  Personal  evangelistic  work 
with  individuals  and  some  measure  of  specific  evangelistic  work 
in  public  meetings  or  in  itineration  ought  to  be  done  by  every 
mi.ssionary  even  though  lie  is  assigned  fo  institutional  work.  A 
large  proportion  of  the  members  of  a foreign  mission  will  in- 
evitably be  so  assigned.  So  far  from  being  exemjited  thereby 
from  evangelism,  they  are  laid  under  the  heavier  obligations  foV 
it  as  being  examples  to  the  cliurch,  which  will  give  far  more  heed 
to  what  they  are  and  do  than  it  will  to  what  they  .say.  (3)  The 
day  for  itinerating  work  by  missionaries  in  the  Philippines  and 
other  missions  has  not  gone  by,  although  it  is  an  unhappy  fact 

243 


tliat  in  many  missions  tliere  is  less  of  it  now  tlian  there  used 
to  l)e.  Iin])Vove(l  facilities  of  tiavel  7nake  it  liardei-  to  continue 
to  use  the  old  pi-imitive  means  of  trans]»ortation  without  which 
most  of  the  tiehls  cannot  he  visitefl.  It  is  easier  now  to  lay  off 
this  work  on  native  men  “who  can  (h)  it  l)etter  than  the  mission- 
aries,”— only  as  a matter  of  fact  they  cannot,  at  least  those  who 
are  available  for  the  itineratinj;  work,  because  the  better  men 
who  could  do  it  better  than  the  missionaries  are  anxious  to  do 
the  same  kind  of  educational  or  local  work  which  they  assume 
from  missionary  example  is  more  important.  Perhaps  also  mod- 
ern ideas  of  social  conversion  and  national  reformation  have 
weakened  our  di.scernment  of  the  e<pially  important  duty  of 
reaching  individuals  and  ]»lanting  Christian  congregations 
among  the  masses  of  the  people  in  the  country  villages.  As  a 
matter  of  fact  it  will  be  found  that  in  most  of  our  mission  fields 
the  men  who  are  the  leaders  in  what  are  regarded  as  the  larger 
Christian  movements  and  who  constitute  the  city  churches,  came 
u]>  out  of  tho.se  congregations  which  owe  their  existence  to  the 
fidelity  of  the  itinerating  work  of  the  earlier  missionaries  and 
which  need  to  be  multiplied  manyfold  by  similar  work  today. 
(4l  Conserve  and  follow  ui)  the  multitude  of  points  of  contact 
and  evangelistic  op])ortunity  which  we  now  have  and  carry  the 
Filipino  church  along  in  the  process.  It  is  estimated  that  5,000 
boys  have  studied  in  Silliman  Institute  since  its  establishment. 
The  great  majority  of  these  went  out  deeply  influenced  by  the 
.school  and  with  Avarm  friendliness  toward  all  that  it  represented. 
These  boys  are  scattered  in  hundreds  of  communities  where  no 
missionary  or  evangelist  has  been  able  to  go.  and  they  repre- 
.sent  only  one  of  many  doorways  of  evangelistic  opportunity 
open  before  us.  ( 5 ) Carry  on  in  our  theological  seminaries,  in 
the  i)resbyteries,  in  the  churches,  and  by  fi’equent  conferences 
and  conventions,  an  unremitting  campaign  of  appeal  to  the 
church.  Establish  evangelistic  workers’  training  classes  wher- 
ever j)ossible  in  the  congregations.  Seek  to  identify  the  privi- 
lege of  ]>ersonal  evangelism  with  the  duty  and  joy  of  Christian 
faith.  This  should  be  <lone  by  beginning  with  the  catechumenate, 
by  exj)ecting  of  inquirers,  as  has  been  done  from  the  beginning 
in  Korea,  that  they  should  be  iiropagators  of  the  gospel  in  the 
time  of  their  catechumenate. 

3.  From  the  beginning  the  Filipino  church  has  been  blest 
with  many  earnest  and  zealous  Filipino  i)reachers.  Some  of 
the  older  men.  after  doing  a good  work,  droppetl  away  from  the 
ministry.  A few,  but  only  a few,  failed  morally.  More  of  them 
l>elouged  to  the  old  Spanish  order  and  lacked  in  p.ower  and 
adaptation.  Some  of  them  have  continued  to  this  day  in  fidel- 
ity and  fruitfulness.  A younger  generation  is  now  growing  up, 
trained  in  the  .spirit  of  the  new  era.  These  men  and  the  lay 
leadership  under  them  should  be  loved  and  trusted  and  coached 
and  iusi)ired  into  a true  and  efficient  spiritual  leadership.  Xow 
that  the  church  is  ecclesia.stically  independent  and  that  the  nn- 

244 


natural  authorit}’  which  the  foreign  control  of  a native  church 
lays  so  embarrassingly  upon  missionaries,  is  in  part  at  least  dis- 
solved, the  missionaries  are  free  to  give  themselves  to  this  task 
of  cultivating  free  leadership  in  the  native  men.  The  more  one 
studies  the  Xew  Testament,  the  more  he  admires  the  way  in 
which  tlie  apostle  Paul  detected  tlie  capacities  of  leadership  in 
the  young  men  whom  he  met  and  developed  these  capacities  into 
power.  If  every  missionaiu’  could  find  half  a dozen  young  men 
as  Paul  found  Timotliy  and  Titus  and  Silas  and  Luke  and  otli- 
ers  and  do  for  them  in  his  and  tlieir  measure  what  Paul  did  for 
these  young  men  whom  he  trained,  a new  day  would  begin  for 
the  work  in  the  Pliilip])ines,  And  any  other  responsibilities 
which  missionaries  cariw  might  well  be  given  a second  place  in 
order  that  such  primary  work  as  this  might  not  go  undone.  One 
great  weakness  in  many  of  the  missions,  as  appears  from  Dr. 
Campbell’s  statement  regarding  the  experiment  with  the  ordin- 
ation of  ministers  in  north  Siam,  is  that  when  such  men  have 
been  given  ecclesiastical  authority  and  independence,  they  are 
too  often  left  to  meet  their  new  duties  without  the  constant  per- 
sonal sp’iritual  intimacy  and  tactful  sympathy  and  guidance  and 
intellectual  and  practical  suggestion  which  they  need  in  their 
larger  place  more  thaTi  ever  before.  Of  course  such  coaching 
Inquires  time  and  everybody  is  already  overdriven.  But  Paul 
found  time  to  work  with  his  young  men  in  these  veiy  ways  and 
we  must  find  time  also  men  though  other  things  go  undone. 

Especially  do  we  have  a duty  to  lead  these  native  leaders  ever 

deeper  into  Christ.  God  grant  that  some  of  them  may  be  able 
tr>  lead  us.  Some  of  tlnmi  have  already  done  so  but  many  of 
them  yet  offer  to  our  missions  the  task  which  should  be  their 
first  ta.sk  of  carrying  forward  in  Cln  ist  the  men  who  are  to  draw 

the  people  after  them.  The  lives  of  men  in  the  Philippine 

fslands.  as  everywhere,  are  open  to  such  spiritual  friendship, 
not  only  open  to  it  bnt  hungry  for  it  as  many  a missionary  in 
the  Islands  who  has  used  his  life  richly  in  work  of  this  kind 
can  testify.  "We  shall  never  forget  the  spinadi  of  welcome  made 
in  one  of  the  stations  l>y  a young  public  school  teacher  who.  tell- 
ing of  all  that  had  already  come  to  him.  ex])ressed  the  hope  that 
we  also  had  come  to  bring  them  ‘'some  sweet  words  from  our 
dear  Lord  and  some  new  truths  about  religion  and  life.”  that 
they  might  be  better  heljaal  “to  change  the  attitude  of  men  to 
onr  religion  and  to  bi-ing  theju  to  a living  belief  in  oui-  Lord 
•Tesns  Christ.”  It  is  most  encouraging  to  see  the  libraries  which 
some  of  the  young  ministers  have  built  nj)  and  to  note  their  zest 
in  preaching  and  tludr  resourcefulness  in  method.  And  behind 
them  are  many  laymen  whose  hearts  and  li])s  (tod  has  touched. 
We  shall  evei-  i-emember  one  of  them,  a harness maker,  who  with 
his  brother  provides  the  money  for  the  .support  of  an  evangelist 
and  who  himself  also  every  year  goes  out  with  the  missionary 
on  an  evangelistic  trij)  taking  no  money  for  his  .services  and  in- 
sisting upon  jiaying  his  own  exi)enses,  and  who  sadly  asked  in 

245 


)iie  of  the  coiiferences:  “Ever  since  I tK;lieve<l  I have  been 
zealous  in  speakinj?  of  Christ  in  rn^^  own  house  and  on  the  street 
and  yet  T cannot  lay  iny  hand  on  a single  soul  that  T have  been 
enabled  to  win  to  Christ.  Why  should  this  be?”  George  Bowen 
used  to  ask  that  (piestion  at  the  end  of  his  long  life  of  saintly 
missionary  service  in  Bombay  and  the  answer  in  his  case  as  in 
Francisco’s  was,  “It  is  not.”  Ife  did  not  know,  but  others  knew 
of  the  fruitage  that  .seeing  not  now  he  shall  see  hereafter. 

4.  Self-suj)port.  To  say  that  of  the  organized  churches 
in  the  Presbyterian  Synod  of  the  Philippines,  only  two  pay  the 
salaries  of  their  pa.stors  and  that  these  two  worship  in  build- 
ings owned  and  maintained  by  the  mi.s.sion,  is  true,  but  it  gives 
a partial  and  unjust  impression  with  regard  to  the  giving  of 
tlie  Filipino  churches.  According  to  the  last  statistics  reported, 
the  communicant  membership  of  the  church  was  12,500  and  the 
church  contributions  gold  87,701,  or  an  average  of  sixty-two 
cents  gold  per  member  as  compared  with  82.32  in  Japan  and 
81.70  in  Korea.  If  only  two  pastors  are  supported  by  their  owm 
churches  nevertheless  a number  of  evangelists  are  maintaine<l 
upon  the  field.  In  the  Iloilo  field,  for  example,  outside  of  Iloilo 
city  where  the  church  supports  its  own  pastor,  there  are  39  con- 
gregations in  the  five  districts  of  the  field,  one  supported  by  the 
home  missions  committee  of  the  pi*esbyteiw,  one  by  the  people 
among  whom  he  is  working,  and  the  other  five  by  the  mission. 
And  if  the  people  are  not  supporting  their  pa.stors  as  they  ought, 
they  have  at  least  been  veiw  generous  in  providing  church  build- 
ings. Only  a few  of  the  buildings  have  been  erected  or  aided 
by  the  mi.ssion.  The  great  majority  have  been  built  by  the  peo- 
ple themselves.  Some  of  them  are  veiy  beautiful  little  churches. 
Many  of  them  have  been  erected  at  great  sacrifice.  It  is  de- 
lightful to  see  the  pride  that  the  people  take  in  them.  We  spent 
no  happier  day  on  all  our  trip  than  the  day  with  the  congrega- 
tion at  Cabangahan,  a country  congregation  in  the  Cebu  field 
where  a great  company  of  happy-hearted  country  Christians  left 
(heir  work  to  sj)end  the  whole  day  with  us  in  a conference  in  the 
commodious  church  which  they  had  built  with  their  own  hands 
on  a high  hill  looking  off  to  the  white  surf  breaking  on  the  beach 
of  Cebu  and  the  blue  waters  that  stretched  away  to  Bohol.  It 
should  be  said  also  that  many  of  the  congregations  may  l>e  call- 
ed self-supporting  in  the  sense  described  iTi  the  decennial  report 
of  the  mi.s.sion  is.sued  in  1909:  “They  do  not  contribute  to  their 
l)astor’s  salarv  because  they  have  no  pastor,  but  they  do  main- 
tain regular  service,  led  by  the  leaders  or  elders  of  the  churches. 
In  this  they  have  the  assistance  of  other  iinsalaried  but  better 
instructed  men  from  the  neighboring  or  city  churches.  They 
build  their  owm  chapels,  care  for  their  own  poor,  preach  the 
Gospel  to  their  neighbors  and  carry  on  the  work  of  the  church, 
perhaps  not  in  the  most  perfect  way  but  in  such  a way  as  to 
get  growth.”  To  all  this  it  should  be  added  that  in  many  parts 
of  the  Islands  the  people  are  very  poor.  But  when  these  things 

246 


have  been  said  the  mission  still  recognizes  that,  whether  be- 
cause of  these  difficulties  in  tlie  way  or  in  the  reaction  from  the 
mercinariness  of  the  old  ecclesiastical  institutions  with  which 
the  gospel  was  contrasted  as  something  free  in  a sense  never 
intended  by  Paul,  ground  has  been  lost  in  the  matter  of  self- 
support  which  should  never  have  been  surrendered  and  a heavy 
task  of  education  rests  upon  the  church.  One  congregation  of 
870  adult  members  gives  only  five  pesos,  or  two  dollars  and  a 
half  gold  a month  towards  its  pastor’s  salary,  and  ten  pesos  a 
month  toward  the  support  of  two  evangelists.  Another  church 
of  513  members  in  a poor  section,  a large  majority  of  whose 
members  cannot  read  or  write,  has  been  giving  five  pesos  a 
month  towards  its  pastor’s  salary,  but  intermitted  this  for  a 
time  to  turn  it  into  a manse  fund.  These  are  extreme  cases  but 
they  represent  scores  of  congregations  which  need  to  be  trained 
in  self-support.  How  can  this  be  done?  (1)  We  should  begin 
early  and  reduce  to  the  minimum  the  subsidizing  of  theological 
students.  Men  who  are  easily  supported  in  the  theological  sem- 
inar\"  by  foreign  funds  will  probably  find  it  difficult  afterwards 
to  realize  or  advocate  the  idea  of  self-support.  As  far  as  pos- 
sible the  aid  that  is  given  should  be  worked  for.  There  may 
well  be  no  tuition  fees  in  our  mission  theological  schools,  but  it 
is  very  desirable  that  the  students  should  provide  or  earn  in  one 
way  or  anotlier  tlieir  own  support.  (21  Begin  all  new  congrega- 
tions on  the  right  basis  with  the  recognition  of  the  duty  of  sys- 
tematic and  projuu-tionate  giving  and  with  a joyful  acceptance 
of  the  ideal  of  financial  indei)endence.  (31  The  existing  prob- 
lem should  be  dealt  with  not  in  general  terms  but  concretely. 
Working  (hrongh  coinmittees  on  self-su])port  in  each  presbyter\" 
the  local  ini.ssionary  or  the  mission’s  committee  on  .self-.support 
should  deal  with  each  congregation  according  to  its  circum- 
stances. At  its  annual  meeting  the  mission  should  have  before 
it  a list  of  all  congregations  of  over  fifty  members  showing  the 
date  of  the  organization  of  each,  the  number  of  members  and  the 
amonnts  it  has  given  each  year  for  several  years,  and  for  wliat 
the  money  is  given.  (41  The  mission  sliould  consider  carefully 
its  nietliod  of  giving  assistance,  whether,  as  at  present,  as.sist- 
ance  shonld  be  given  to  individuals  or  whether  it  should  be 
given  to  fields  or  whethei-  it  should  be  given  in  a lump  sum  to  the 
presbyteries,  or  whether  it  should  be  given  to  the  synod  for 
distribution  to  the  pre.sbytei-ies  and  through  the  presbyteries  to 
tlie  local  fields,  and  how  under  any  jdan  the  local  chnrches  can 
be  held  to  their  obligation  of  doing  their  .share  and  not  be  al- 
lowed to  fall  into  deliminency  in  the  comfortable  feeling  that 
the  mission  has  the  re.sjjonsibility  and  will  make  up  deficits. 
One  great  objection  to  the  jdan  of  the  mission’s  giving  its  aid  to 
individual  pastors  or  evangelists  is  that  it  inevitabh'  makes 
these  men  lielpers  of  the  mission,  and  dissolves  the  responsi- 
bility of  relationshij)  between  them  and  the  local  presbyteries 
ami  tends  to  make  the  influence  of  the  mis.sionaries  financial 

247 


and  antlioritaf ive  rather  lhaii  spintual  and  ])rotherly.  The 
wiser  plan  is  to  deal  either  directly  with  local  conj^refrations  or 
with  the  lai-oer  ecclesiastical  bodies  and  to  secure  a steady  in- 
crease of  the  gifts  of  established  congregations  with  a corres- 
ponding diniinution  of  the  mission’s  gifts  in  order  that  the  sav- 
ing may  be  used  in  advance  work  in  establishing  new  congrega- 
tions. Onr  method  should  rest  fundamentally  on  the  principle 
of  building  up  churches  and  not  of  employing  men.  (’51  We  owe 
all  the  hel])  that  we  can  give  to  the  pastors  who  are  settle^l  over 
chnrches  whicii  ought  to  be  self-supporting  and  are  not.  It 
may  be  very  embai  rassing  for  the  j)astor  to  initiate  the  education 
and  organization  needed  to  bring  the  church  to  self-support. 
Mitlier  the  missionary  or  the  pre.sbytery  should  help  him  in  this 
and  do  wliat  is  necessary  to  ju-ovide  the  congregation  with  the 
conscience  and  the  metliod  which  it  lacks.  Several  months 
spent  in  working  out  such  problems  in  some  of  the  stronger 
chnrches  would  be  time  well  expended. 

5.  Tliere  is  tlie  .same  nwd  in  tbe  churches  iu  the  Philippines 
which  was  observed  in  Siam  of  systematic  and  sustained  pro- 
cesses of  education  and  develojunent  in  the  churches.  In  1908 
although  we  had  85  organized  and  partly  organized  churches  we 
had  only  (it!  Snnday-schools,  and  while  the  church  membershij) 
was  8.984  the  Sunday  -school  membership  was  only  3.385.  Now 
with  144  organized  and  ]»artly  organized  churches  we  have  152 
Sunday-schools  niid  with  12.509  communicants  there  are  8.701 
Snnday-school  members.  The  MetluMlists  report  in  1915  a total 
of  church  members  and  j)roba1  ioners  of  35.037  and  278  Sunday- 
schools  with  13.777  members.  In  other  words  our  Presbyterian 
Sunday-school  membershij)  is  77  j)er  cent,  of  our  church  mem- 
bershij)  and  the  ]\Iethodist  34  j)er  cent.  f)f  their  total  number  of 
members  and  ju-obationers.  1 fear  that  our  figures  as  given  in 
tbe  Board's  last  rejxtrt  and  (juoted  here  are  more  favorable  than 
the  facts  warrant.  In  Jaj)an  onr  Sunday-school  membership  is 
00  ])ei-  cent,  of  the  chnrcli  mend)ershij)  and  in  Korea  it  is  nearly 
33  jier  cent,  in  excess  of  the  church  membership  If  the  cate- 
chumens are  added  to  the  church  membership  in  Korea  as  the 
Methodists  add  them  in  the  Phili])])ines  the  Sunday-school  mem- 
bershij)  in  Korea  would  be  about  88  jier  cent,  of  the  total.  There 
is  need  of  a careful  and  thorough  development  of  the  Sunday- 
school  work.  In  some  fields  there  are  careful  card  catalogues 
of  the  cliurch  membershij)  on  which  a record  is  kept  of  the  at- 
tendance at  the  Lord’s  Sujiper.  There  is  nothing  like  the  care- 
ful procedure  of  the  Korean  churches,  however,  in  keejting  ac- 
count of  church  and  jirayermeeting  attendance.  The  average 
attendance  in  our  I’resbyterian  churches  is  50  jter  cent  of  the 
member.shij).  The  Methodists  rej)ort  the  same  average,  and  they 
recognize  the  need  of  a far  more  thorough  shepherding  and 
training  of  their  whole  body.  There  shouhl  be  more  church  in- 
struction in  the  memorizing  of  scrij)ture  and  of  hymns,  more 
Bible  institutes  as  in  the  Korean  churches  where  the  people 

248 


come  together  for  days  at  a time,  when  the  work  on  the  farms 
is  slack,  for  organized  and  systematic  Bible  teaching.  There 
should  he  careful  stndy  of  tlie  needs  of  the  various  fields  and 
the  right  adjustment  of  metlnxls.  On  the  face  of  tlie  mission 
statistics  there  are  more  Sunday-school  scholars  in  Tayabas 
than  there  are  church  members,  while  in  Laguna  there  are  more 
church  members  than  there  are  Sunday-school  scholars.  There 
are  similar  disproportions  in  Korea.  South  Pyeugan  for  ex- 
ainple,  according  to  the  Korea  Oeneral  Assembly  .statistics  of 
1914,  with  14,8.")4  communicants  and  5,(i49  catechumens,  rejK)its 
22,()90  Suuday-.school  .scholars  and  24,589  Bible  Class  attend- 
ants, while  North  Pyengan  with  13,552  commnnicants  and  5,592 
catechumens  and  40  per  cent,  more  adherents  than  South  Pyen- 
gan reports  less  than  half  as  many  Sunday-school  scholars  or 
10,445,  and  15,288  Bible  Class  attendants. 

0.  The  eccle.siastical  independence  of  the  church.  The  Pres- 
byterian church  in  the  IMiilippine  Islands  is  now  entirely  inde- 
pendent of  the  church  in  America.  At  the  end  of  a decade  and 
a half  of  mis.sionary  service,  at  the  instance  of  the  mission,  the 
General  A.s.sembly  at  its  meeting  in  Chicago  in  1914,  ordered  the 
establishment  of  the  Presbyterian  churches  in  the  Islands  as  an 
indej)endent  organization.  Dr.  Kodgers  has  ,'<tated,  with  his 
characteristic  tact  and  kindlines.s,  the  story  of  the  establishment 
of  the  new  synod.  Speaking  of  the  history  of  the  mis.sion  as 
falling  into  tlmn*  distinct  half  decades,  he  says,  “Its  first  years 
were  years  of  publishing  and  making  known  the  Good  News  we 
had  come  to  bring.  Friends  familiar  with  the  history  of  the 
mis.sion  will  recall  the  jfreat  number  who  came  to  hear  this  mes- 
sage and  the  acceptance  thereof  by  many,  many  people.  They 
were  blessed  days,  days  in  which  the  power  of  God’s  Spirit  in 
the  souls  of  men  was  manifested  with  great  power.  The  second 
period  was  a time  of  organizing  and  establishing  the  .scattered 
groups  into  churches  which,  lK*coming  conscious  of  their  own  re- 
sponsibilities, have  develoj»ed  into  .self-reliant  churches,  some  .self- 
sni)porting,  other  still  dependent  in  jjart  on  the  helj)  and  guidance 
of  the  American  missionaries.  This  .second  j)eriod  now  gives  way 
to  a third,  that  of  the  independent  church  in  the  Philippines.  We 
have  been  guide<l.  led,  almost  compelled  by  the  force  of  circum- 
stances to  the  stej)  of  asking  the  home  church  to  release  us  from 
the  formal  relation  that  has  bound  ns  .><o  happily  for  fifteen  years, 
that  as  a church  we  may  with  God’s  help  work  out  our  own  des- 
tiny in  these  Islands.  The  last  General  Assembly  cordially 
granted  the  re<|iiest  and  on  October  8th,  tiftwm  years  almost  to 
the  day  from  the  time  when  the  first  members  wen*  received  into 
the  Fvangelical  church  in  Manila,  we  regretfully  started  out  in 
life  by  our.selves.  Although  the  formal  ties  are  broken  we  shall 
count  on  the  loving  assistance  and  counsel  of  the  home  church. 
The  young  bride  fresh  from  her  mother's  home  still  needs  the 
mother’s  guidance  and  is  appreciative  of  it  if  tactfully  given. 

“We  l>elieve  that  this  stej»  will  remove  the  last  trace  of  fear 

249 


that  many  of  the  more  liberally-minded  people  in  the  Philippines 
have  had  of  ns.  The  experiences  of  the  past  centuries  under  a 
foreign  church  whose  jtrojterty.  held  in  the  name  of  the  foreign 
bishop,  was  denied  the  jteojde  whose  fathers  had  given  it,  a 
church  in  which  bnt  few  of  the  ]»eoj)le  of  the  land  had  a vmice  and 
they  only  that  of  snbordinat(*s,  had  made  the  i)eoi)le  fearful  of 
the  control  of  even  .so  kindly  a mother  as  our  home  church.  This 
was  not  due  to  any  lack  of  af^jn-eciation  of  the  help  given  but 
simply  to  a dread  of  things  foreign  and  a proper  and  natural 
desire  to  have  their  own  church.  The  mission  has  shown  wi.s- 
dom  in  anticipating  this  desire  and  granting  it  even  before  a 
request  for  it  was  formulated. 

‘‘The  occasion  of  the  opening  of  the  .synod  was  one  of  much 
.solemnity.  The  old  synod  closed  its  se.s.sions  with  a deep  feel- 
ing and  a vote  of  gratitude  to  the  General  Assembly  for  all  that 
it  had  done.  The  mover  of  this  motion,  one  of  the  older  Filipino 
pastor.s,  was  so  affected  that  he  could  not  make  the  motion.  A 
deep  and  abiding  sense  of  gratitude  pervadetl  the  whole  synod. 
That  same  evening,  October  8th.  the  new  synod  oj)ene<l  its  ses- 
sions with  appropriate  exercises.  The  writer  of  these  lines,  as 
.senior  minister,  presided  by  order  of  the  General  Assembly  until 
the  definite  organization  of  the  synod.  Pa.stor  Jose  Moleta  of 
the  Iloilo  church  was  elected  moderator  and  presided  with  abil- 
ity and  tact.  The  new  church  adopted  the  standards  of  the  Pres- 
byterian Church  for  its  constitution.  In  obedience  to  the  cus- 
tom of  past  years  and  in  order  to  make  the  work  of  forming 
one  united  Evangelical  church  easy,  the  synod  adopted  the  name 
“The  Evangelical  Church  of  the  Philippines  (Independent  Pres- 
byterian) .... 

“The  mis.sion  looks  forward  to  a growing  ability  on  the  part 
of  the  church  to  cai’e  for  its  own  res]»onsibilities  and  to  preach 
the  go.spel  of  Christ  to  its  peojile.  We  trust,  however,  that  no 
one  will  imagine  that  it  is  or  ^^ill  l>e  for  some  years  strong 
enough  to  cariw  on  the  work  with  the  nece.ssary  vigor  so  as  to 
dispense  with  the  help  of  the  home  church.  The  relations  of  the 
mis.sion  and  the  synod  will  change  but  gradually  and  by  placing 
the  emphasis  more  and  more  on  the  re.sponsibility  of  the  church. 

“The  mis.sion  has  ab.stained  from  political  discussion  and  ex- 
presses no  opinion  on  the  pending  legislation.  Whatever  changes 
may  be  made  in  the  form  of  government  in  the  future,  the  work 
of  the  Evangelical  Church  of  the  Philippines  and  of  the  Presby- 
terian Mission  will  go  on  as  ever,  each  one,  Filipino  and  Ameri- 
can, elder  and  pastor,  .striving  to  the  extent  of  his  strength  to- 
ward the  upbuilding  of  the  Kingdom  of  the  Master.” 

Whether  it  was  wise  or  premature  to  set  off  the  churches  in 
the  Philippines  in  this  independent  SATiod.  two  facts  are  clear. 
(1)  One  is  that  there  have  been  no  further  schisms  such  as  the 
.separation  of  the  Cavite  churches  from  the  mission  and  Presby- 
tery of  Manila  in  1913.  In  this  schism  four  entire  churches 
withdrew  and  with  them  portions  of  four  other  churches.  Many 

250 


confused  elements  entered  into  the  schism  as  is  always  the  case 
in  such  movements,  but  probably  the  Independencia  spirit  was 
the  responsible  cause  as  the  leaders  of  the  separation  declared. 
The  absolute  ecclesiastical  independence  of  the  synod  has  not 
recalled  these  churches,  but  it  has  satisfied  and  (gratified thepeople 
and  there  have  been  no  further  withdrawals.  Indeed  apart  from 
the  Tagalog  section  around  Manila  there  has  never  been  any  dif- 
ficulty whatever  and  many  parts  of  the  field  would  have  pre- 
ferred that  ecclesiastical  independence  should  have  been  post- 
poned. (2)  The  second  fact  is  that  tlie  independent  synod  has 
been  set  up  with  three  pre.sbyteries  and  that  the  forms  must  now 
be  filled  with  life.  It  will  be  no  ea.sy  ta.sk.  With  the  Presbytery 
of  Manila  in  its  northern  section  it  should  not  be  difficult,  but 
the  southern  section  at  the  lower  end  of  Luzon  in  the  provinces 
of  Albay  and  Camarines  and  Sorsogoii  .speaks  a different  dialect, 
Bicol  in.stead  of  Tagalog,  and  has  no  connection  with  Manila 
except  by  a long  water  trip.  This  Bicol  section  cannot  at  pres- 
ent join  in  any  efficient  way  with  the  Tagalog  section  and  it 
has  no  de.sire  to  be  set  up  in  a .separate  presbytery,  having  in  it 
not  one  self-supporting  cliurch  and  only  one  ordained  pastor 
apart  from  the  two  missionaries.  The  Iloilo  field  constitutes 
the  Pauay  Pre.sbyterv  willi  .six  ordained  men  and  is  separated  by 
dialect  from  the  rest  of  the  Visayan  field,  which  embraces  the 
Islands  of  Cebu,  Oriental  Negros,  Bohol,  and  Leyte  and  which 
forms  the  I*resbytery  of  Cebu.  This  Presbytery  of  Cebu  is  a 
large,  wideh'  extended  field,  in  which  meetings  of  the  whole 
presbytery  are  almost  prohibited  by  the  expen.se  in  money  and 
time. 

Some  have  proi)osed  that  tlie  obvious  difficulties  of  handling 
the  ])resent  synod  niiglit  be  met  by  .setting  u]>  three  more  pre.s- 
byteries  and  having  two  .synods  and  a general  assembly.  Sure- 
ly, however,  it  is  better  to  try  to  get  along  as  at  j)resent  instead 
of  organizing  more  ])re.sbyterial  and  .syiuMlical  machinery  on  a 
basis  of  only  two  (pia.si-self-.support ing  local  churches,  all  the 
rest  (lei)ending  in  large  j)art  upon  mi.ssion  suj)j)ort.  Even  in 
the  Presbytery  of  Manila,  with  2~>  organized  churches,  only 
three  are  j)aying  one-half  the  salaries  of  their  pastors,  several 
more  are  contributing  towards  their  rent  and  all  unite  in  the 
support  of  an  evangelist.  There  are  twelve  ordained  Filij)inos 
in  the  ])resbytery  and  the  mission  is  paying  about  8,000  pesos 
a year  for  their  support.  There  is  a membership  of  about  4,000 
in  the  churches  of  the  presbytery.  Surely  there  should  be  more 
progre.ss  in  the  building  uj)  of  the  present  churches  and  presb}'- 
terial  organizations,  even  though  the  work  of  the  Presbytery  of 
Cebu  must  be  done  somewhat  irregularly  and  bj'  independent 
action  of  its  different  .sections,  before  more  ecclesiastical 
machinery  is  .set  u]).  Of  course  the  synod  has  power  to  reor- 
ganize its  field  in  any  way  it  thinks  best  but  it  is  impossible 
for  the  ]>re.sbyteries  to  nicH.*t  now  without  financial  assistance  and 
1 think  it  would  be  wrong  for  the  mission  to  provide  for  any 

251 


nniltii)licatioii  of  llie  inachiiierv  siicli  as  has  been  proposed. 
Oni-  (‘cclesiasl ical  lMiihliiif>  in  tlie  IMiilij)])im*s  is  sufficiently  anti- 
pyi'amidal.  h'oi-  souk*  yeais  all  oiii-  enerjfies  should  be  devo1<*«l 
lo  broadeiiiii}>  and  s( reii<>l h(*ii iiij;  its  base,  namely  to  the  develop- 
ment of  sti'oiif>,  self-sni»j)ort iiifi  local  con<'re{;at ions.  The  eccle- 
siastical machinery  necessary  to  this  end  is  already  in  exist- 
ence. 

7.  As  part  of  onr  evanj^elistic  work  and  next  in  importance 
to  the  task  of  establishinp;  the  churches,  old  and  new,  I believe 
that  onr  emphasis  should  be  laid  at  the  present  time  upon  the 
"reat  o])])ortnnity  ])iesented  by  the  oj)en  minded,  warm  hearte<] 
student  (dass  which  has  been  already  described.  The  public- 
schools  have  clearcnl  away  superstition,  have  taught  young  men 
and  women  to  seek  for  truth  and  not  to  be  afraid  to  ask  ques- 
tions. This  brings  them  at  once  to  those  who  are  not  afraid 
of  truth  but  whose  mission  it  is  to  teach  it  and  who  welcome 
all  intellectual  impiiries.  As  yet  it  has  Ix^n  possible  for  the 
goverunieut  to  establish  high  schools  for  the  most  part  only 
in  ju-oviucial  capitals.  This  brings  the  boys  and  girls  away 
from  their  homes,  opening  them  in  a ])eculiar  way  to  friendship 
and  sympathy,  giving  them  freedom  of  thought  and  action, 
and  exposing  them  to  great  tcmi])tations.  In  .some  of  the  prov- 
inces the  children  have  to  come  up  to  the  provincial  capital 
even  for  fifth,  .sixth  and  seventh  grades.  Anyone  can  realize, 
what  a need  and  opportunity  such  a situation  presents.  Where- 
ever  friendship  is  opened  to  them  these  young  people  flock 
around  it.  Tliey  made  u]>  a large  j»art  of  the  audiences  in 
the  meetings  which  we  attended.  It  is  estimated  that  in  Manila 
there  are  7000  of  them  living  in  homes  which  are  generally  badly 
lighted  and  often  unsanitaiw.  The  government  has  not  been 
able  to  ])i-ovide  dormitories  either  in  Manila  or  elsewhere  except 
a few  for  girls  and  it  wcdcomes  the  co-operation  which  the  mi.s- 
sions  can  give  in  establi.shing  and  maintaining  dormitories, 
many  of  which,  once  the  building  is  provided,  can  be  made 
entirely  self-supporting.  Our  mission  has  now  most  attractive 
dormitories  for  young  men  in  Iloilo  and  Cebu  and  for  young 
women  in  Cebu,  aud  provides  a home  for  a number  of  girls 
who  are  studying  medicine  in  ^lanila  in  Ellinwood  Seminary 
and  houses  a number  of  young  men  in  one  of  the  dormitories 
of  the  theological  school.  Mr.  MacDonald  has  also  an  ingenious 
dormitory  for  boys  in  part’  of  the  old  Spanish  house  which  he 
occupies  in  Naga  and  Mr.  Brown  is  building  a new  dormitory 
in  Albay  with  generous  gifts  from  the  Milwaukee  presbytery. 
The  care  of  these  dormitories  lays  an  additional  burden  on  the 
mi.ssionaries  but  it  is  well  worth  bearing.  Each  of  these  build- 
ings becomes  a foundation  of  good  influences.  The  b(»ys  in  the 
Cebu  dormitory  come  from  eight  ])rovinces,  some  of  them  passing 
right  by  Silliman  Institute,  which  the  clerical  sympathies  of 
their  parents  would  not  allow  them  to  attend,  and  go  back  from 
the  dormitory  with  an  enlightenment  which  is  communicated 

252 


to  the  home.  The  girls  in  the  donnitory  in  Cebii  when  we  were 
there  came  from  five  pi-ovinces  to  whicli  they  returned  carrying 
the  new  light  and  life  with  them.  Not  only  should  the  oppor- 
tunities presented  in  these  dormitories  be  used  in  a wise  and 
tactful  way,  but  the  mission  should  plan  evangelistic  work  with 
.special  reference  to  the  student  class.  The  whole  future  of  the 
Islands  may  depend  ni)on  the  winning  of  these  students  now  to 
a Christian  faitli  which  sliall  form  the  kind  of  Christian  char- 
acter on  which  alone  a Christian  nation  can  be  built. 

S.  Extension  of  work.  The  population  of  the  sections  of  the 
Philippine  T.slands  entrusted  to  onr  mission  for  evangelization 
is  about  2,500,000.  To  meet  tliis  resjumsibility  we  have  21  men 
of  whom  four  ai-e  jjliysicians  and  five  are  teachers,  and  twenty 
mar7‘ied  and  six  single  women.  Oni*  field  embraces  fourteen 
provinces.  Missionaries  live  at  pre.sent  in  but  ten  of  these. 
The  others  are  entirely  open.  It  is  not  clear  that  the  mission 
would  desire  to  locate  a foreign  missionary  in  each  province  but 
to  fill  present  vacancies,  adeipiately  to  occupy  the  territory,  and 
to  staff  Silliman  Institute  properly  the  mission  asked  when  it 
had  19  men  that  tlie  number  should  be  doubled.  “The  Presby- 
terian church,”  it  said,  “is  not  accustomed  to  shirk  its  full 
re.sponsibility  and  we  are  assured  that  it  will  not  do  so  in  the 
present  instance.  We  ai<‘  sure  that  it  will  help  ns  come  up  to 
Ihe  full  measure  of  duty.  There  is  uo  reason  for  looking  on 
this  work,  as  one  never  (o  be  tinislied,  stretching  out  eternally 
and  our  never  reaching  tlie  (md.  There  is  no  need  of  another  gen- 
eration. Doubl(‘  our  force  and  we  promi.se  with  God’s  helj),  not 
that  eveiw  soul  will  acc(*]»t  llis  go.sjxd,  but  that  every  soul  shall 
have  a chance  to  do  so  during  the  coming  ten  or,  at  the  most, 
fifteen  years.  Th(‘  Philippines  gov(*rnni(‘nt  covered  the  islands 
with  its  schools  in  thi-ee  yeais  and  has  a complete  .successful 
system  of  education  running  in  ten.  fs  our  beloved  church  less 
able?” 

The  extent  of  the  field  falling  to  one  missionary  at  jiresent 
may  be  illustrated  in  the  cas(‘  of  the  jirovince  of  Negros  Oriental. 
This  ju'ovince  has  a coast  liin*  of  .‘50t)  kilometer.s.  It  contains 
Hi  municipalities  and  :*>lt>  ban-ios  or  villages.  Its  pojinlation  is 
155,000.  It  has  about  50  kilometins  of  good  roads.  All  the 
rest  of  the  travel  must  be  over  trails.  The  island  of  Siipiijor 
which  lies  in  sight  acro.ss  a wide  strait  belongs  to  the  same 
mission  field.  It  confains  five  municipalifies,  144  barrios  with 
a populafion  of  45,000  and  a number  of  good  roads.  In  this 
field  of  Negros  Oriental  and  Siipiijor  there  is  mission  work  in 
10  municipalities  and  45  baii-io';.  there  are  seven  organiz<‘d 
churches,  eight  unorganized  congregations  and  40  jioints  Avhere 
thei-e  is  irregular  itreaching  by  native*  (*vang(*lists.  There  are* 
tive  e»rdaine*el  jeasteus,  one  e*vangelisf  e*niple)ye*el  by  the  missieui, 
twe>  by  the  native*  eliui'e-h,  and  twee  voluntary,  self-supjieerting 
e*vangelists.  The*  teetal  ine*nd)e*i-shi]>  is  2titl4  e>f  whieh  825  are 
on  the  infant  list.  There  are  21  Sunelay  Se*he)ols  with  1550 

253 


members.  The  fotal  amounl  now  paid  to  the  pa.stors  and  evan- 
f^elists  i.s  2100  I'esos,  000  from  the  field  and  tlie  balance  from 
the  mission.  All  this  work  is  under  the  care  of  one  missionary 
and  due  to  the  pres.sure  in  Silliman  Institute  the  past  year  he 
has  had  four  or  five  hours  of  teaching  a day  mo.st  of  the  week 
in  addition  to  the  responsibility  of  the  evangelistic  supervision 
and  development  of  this  field. 

There  are  no  missionaries  in  the  island  of  Masbate  or  in 
Maranduque,  which  belong  to  our  field.  The  former  has  a popu- 
lation of  2.5,000  and  the  latter  of  18,000.  There  are  the  begin- 
nings of  work  in  each  i.sland  which  have  not  been  followed  up. 
And  not  to  .speak  of  main'  smaller  i.slands,  Mindoro  with  4.3,299 
population  and  Samar  with  278,204  have  no  mi.ssionaries.  When 
the  first  territorial  division  of  the  Islands  was  made  between 
the  different  denominations  it  was  understood  that  the  Presby- 
terians and  the  Northern  Baptists  would  be  respon.sible  for  the 
whole  Visayan  group,  but  as  yet  neither  of  these  missions  has 
been  able  to  do  anything  for  these  two  great  islands.  I have 
spoken  elsewhere  of  the  great  need  in  northern  Mindanao  where 
a number  of  congregations  from  Cebu  have  emigrated  and  many 
young  men  who  have  studied  at  Silliman  have  carried  the  go.spel 
home  with  them.  Mr.  Laubach  of  the  American  Board  mission 
in  Mindanao  who  has  just  gone  as  the  first  mis.sionarj'  to  the 
north  coast,  hoped  to  meet  us  in  Dumaguete  to  discuss  the  more 
adequate  occupation  of  this  promising  field.  He  was  prevented 
from  coming  but  wrote  that  he  was  “overflowing  with  the  enthu- 
siasm of  enormous  possibilities  in  Mindanao:” 

“We  have  been  urged  to  come  to  thirteen  distinct  towns  and 
cities  in  Mindanao  by  inhabitants  of  these  places.  There  is 
certainty  that  we  would  be  able  to  reach  large  proportions  of 
every  one  of  those  cities.  The  town  in  which  I am  at  pre.sent 
is  wholly  evangelical  now.  There  is  no  other  church  here. 
Until  today  it  has  been  without  a pastor.  The  man  I am  leav- 
ing here  is  the  only  man  beside  myself  to  man  the  cities  where 
we  are  wanted,  not  to  .speak  of  the  scores  of  towns  that  need 
us  but  do  not  yet  know  it.  This  is  not  a case  of  foisting  a new 
sect  upon  Catholics.  The.se  people  have  abandoned  Romanism, 
and  welcome  us  wonderfully.  We  are  responding  to  a call,  a 
need,  an  opportunity.  I <lid  not  realize  this  until  I arrived 
here.  Literallv  Mindanao  is  weaker  in  its  Romani.sm  bv  far 
than  IT.  S.  A.  ‘ 

“I  must  stop  with  one  town  as  illustration.  We  decided  to 
live  in  Cagayan.  The  Presideute,  the  Goveimor,  the  Treasurer 
all  the  chief  officials,  welcomed  us,  called  upon  us.  asked  \is 
to  establish  a hospital,  a college,  a dormitory,  a church  I We 
held  a meeting  in  the  cock  pit  Sunday  afternoon  after  the 
.slaughter,  and  that  audience  drank  in  the  words  of  Sr.  Alonso, 
and  applauded  him  and  hung  about  us.  The  next  day  the  chief 
political  ])aper  of  the  city  called  upon  the  inhabitants  of  the 
province  to  give  us  their  utmost  support  and  friendship. 

254 


“Our  trouble  is  that  we  have  no  workers,  native  or  foreign  to 
do  this  work.  We  have  got  to  take  yonng  men  and  women  and 
train  them  for  the  pastorate  for  Hie  peculiar  conditions  of 
Mindanao.  We  need  American  instructors  at  once  to  prepare 
yonng  men  and  women  for  the  work. 

“If  I had  a map  I should  want  to  show  you  the  cities  and 
towns,  both  so  called  Christian  and  so  called  Pagan,  which  wait 
for  us  to  aid  them  as  soon  as  we  are  able  to  do  so.  We  need 
to  establish  fifty  schools  on  the  hills  for  the  wild  folk,  and 
must  prepare  teachers  for  these  schools.  We  are  able  to  take 
young  men  from  Silliman  and  with  a very  little  additional 
training  prepare  them  for  the  peculiar  work  which  they  will 
be  doing  in  the  hills  of  Mindanao. ..  .This  North  coast 
of  Mindanao  has  not  been  touched  at  all  excepting  by  young 
men  from  Silliman.” 

A .staff  of  forty  men  such  as  the  mission  a.sked  for  six  years 
ago  would  give  the  mission  a larger  proportion  of  missionaries 
to  population  than  we  have  in  any  of  onr  missions.  If  so  large 
u number  were  to  be  sent  now  it  would  involve  injustice  to 
other  missions  and  there  would  be  danger  that  we  might  lift 
off  the  shoulders  of  jhe  Filipino  church  responsibilities  which 
it  should  carrj’  rather  than  the  mis.sion.  But  certainly  our 
present  missionary  staff  should  not  be  allowed  to  diminish  and 
■there  is  need  for  several  additional  men  for  evangelistic  work 
and  for  a proper  strengthening  of  the  educational  side  of  the 
■mission. 

9.  When  our  mission  work  in  fhe  Philippine  Islands  began 
it  was  uncertain  whether  fhe  f’liinese  po])iilation  would  remain 
stationary  or  increase.  If  had  been  increasing  slowlv  but  stead- 
ily under  the  Spanish  rule.  Since  fhe  American  occupation, 
however,  exclusion  laws  have  been  enforced  and  the  numbei- 
■of  Chinese  is  perhaps  less  now  than  it  was  fifteen  years  ago. 
There  are  said  to  be  l,S0fi  in  Iloilo  and  20,000  in  Manila. 
Elsewhere  the  Chiue.se  population  is  widely  .scattered.  There 
is  difference  of  opinion  in  the  Philippines  as  to  whether  immi- 
gration of  Chine.se  should  be  permitfed.  The  labor  organiza- 
tions are  opposed  to  it  and  also  the  working  people  aTid  shoj) 
keepers.  Employers  of  labor,  however,  are  di.sposed  to  favor 
it.  The  Agricultural  Congress,  made  up  of  the  large  planters, 
which  was  in  session  in  ^lanila  when  we  were  there,  turned 
out  two  local  lawyers  who  act  as  labor  leaders  and  who  were 
too  forward  in  antagouizang  Cliinese  immigration.  It  was  pro- 
posed at  first  that  the  Congress  should  pass  a resolution  favor- 
ing it.  but  it  finally  i)ut  its  resolution  in  the  form  of  asking 
the  American  Congre.ss  in  Wasliington  to  allow  the  Philippine 
Assembly  to  handle  the  problem  of  immigration  as  it  deems 
wi.se.  It  would  seem  to  be  doubtful  whether  the  resolution 
in  this  form  will  prove  effective.  The  problem  certainly  is  a 
difficult  one.  Fili])ino  labor  is  insnIHcient  and  it  cannot  com- 
pare with  Chinese  labor.  Efficient  labor  in  the  Philippines 

255 


would  lon<f  ago  have  built  up  a far  more  prosperous  and  popu- 
lous society.  The  population  of  the  Islands  is  only  bO  to  the 

■square  mile  while  it  is  200  in  India,  200  in  Japan  and  J50  in 

Java.  On  the  other  hand  if  Chinese  labor  is  allowe<l  to  come 
in  to  do  the  manual  work  the  experience  of  all  these  Easteni 
lands  shows  that  it  will  not  be  long  before  the  Chinese  who 
came  in  as  laborers  have  become  themselves  the  employer's  of 
labor  and  the  masters  of  capital. 

We  have  a small  congregation  among  the  Chinese  in  Iloilo 
where  the  pastor  said  there  were  alxuit  thirty  Chinese  Chris- 
tians. The  work  can  hardly  be  said  to  be  very  effective  or  flour- 
ishing. In  Manila  after  an  effort  on  the  part  of  several  of  the 
missions  to  work  for  (^hinese,  their  efforts  were  unifie^l  and  the 
whole  work  jdaced  under  the  cai-e  of  the  Episcopalians.  It  does 
not  seem  to  have  flourished  any  better,  considering  the  extent 

of  the  field,  than  the  enterprise  in  Iloilo.  And  certainly  the 

work  is  no  easy  one.  As  one  goes  through  the  Chinese  section 
of  Manila  his  que.stionings  regarding  Chine.se  character,  which 
are  allayed  in  China  by  so  many  revelations  of  the  nobler  quali- 
ties of  the  Chinese,  revive,  and  he  a.sks  himself  whether  the 
Chinese  masses  really  have  any  of  the  finer  sensibilities  or 
whether  life  for  them  has  not  become  a mere  matter  of  material 
subsistence  and  prosperiC'  with  an  almost  complete  trophy  to 
higher  aspirations  that  make  trade  aiid  human  intercourse  not 
mere  ends  in  themselves  but  the  means  of  an  advancing  civiliza- 
tion and  a richer  idealism  of  life.  Of  course  any  such  questionings 
do  any  fragment  of  the  human  race  injustice  but  the  intensity 
with  which  they  are  presse^I  upon  one  by  the  atmosphere  of  the 
Chinese  life  in  Manila  suffices  to  indicate  how  difficult  the  prob- 
lem of  Christianizing  .such  a community  is. 

There  are  thirty  Chinese  students  in  Silliman  institute,  two- 
thirds  of  whom  are  Christians.  They  come  from  the  Visayas 
and  from  Jolo.  It  is  possible  this  number  may  diminish  as 
the  Chinese  are  trying  to  raise  at  lea.st  -?200.000  for  a Chinese 
school  in  IManila  with  primary  grades  in  Cebu  and  Iloilo  whose 
graduates  would  be  sent  to  Manila  for  higher  studies.  The 
motive  back  of  the  movement  is  the  natiiral  desire  of  the  Chinese 
to  have  their  sons  secure  a Chinese  as  well  as  an  English  edu- 
cation. The  prevalent  Chinese  dialect  among  the  Chinese  in 
the  Philippines  is  Amoy.  So  long  as  there  are  Chinese  students 
in  Silliman  Institute  it  would  seem  that  every  effort  should  be 
made  to  work  through  them  to  reach  the  families  or  communi- 
ties from  which  they  come.  It  is  just  such  following  up  work 
as  this  that  the  staff  aud  organization  of  a mission  school  should 
enable  it  to  do. 

10.  It  would  not  be  satisfactory  to  close  this  di.scussiou  of 
the  Filipino  church  without  a further  recognition  of  the  sin- 
cerity and  attractiveness  of  so  much  of  the  Christian  experience 
with  which  we  met  throughout  the  Islands.  Nowhere  on  all 
our  trip  did  we  have  happier  or  more  profitable  conferences  than 

256 


with,  the  Filipino  Christians.  Tliere  was  no  miistaking  th.e 
genuineness  of  the  work  which  the  Holy  Spirit  had  done  in  them 
nnd  no  difflculty  in  discerning  the  proof  that  in  one  and  another 
Christ  had  already  been  formed,  the  hope  of  glory.  In  one 
conference  we  asked  the  people  to  speak  frankly  of  what  they 
ifelt  to  be  the  needs  of  the  evangelical  churches  and  of  their  ovm 
/hearts.  A woman  at  once  responded  “I  rejoice  because  we  have 
been  chosen  to  spread  God’s  wiord  and  the  first  question  which 
each  of  us  should  put  to  himself,  I think,  is.  Am  I faithfiil  to 
God  in  this  and  earnest  in  spreading  His  Kingdom?  If  we  find 
that  our  lives  are  lacking  in  this  fidelity  and  earnestness,  surely 
we  must  get  them  right,  and  I think  the  way  is  by  a fuller  and 
•truer  life  of  prayer.  If  we  but  realize  that  God  is  working  in 
us  and  through  u.s.  we  sliall  have  the  power  to  do  His  work  that 
our  churches  need.”  “I  think.”  said  a^  man  who  at  once  followed, 
‘‘that  we  need  the  same  burden  that  was  on  Paul’s  heart  for 
•the  church,  for  its  life  and  growth,  and  the  same  recognition  of 
our  own  weakness  and  need  through  which  God  was  made  strong 
in  him.”  “Our  great  need.”  said  another  woman,  “is  a more  radical 
•change  of  life  in  us  Christians.  Even  if  no  word  is  spoken  the 
life  speaks  and  preaches  and  the  heart  that  is  in  the  life  must 
•be  fitted  for  this  constant  and  unconscious  work.”  “I  think,” 
vsaid  another,  “that  our  need  is  for  more  intensity  in  work,  for 
onore  courage  in  speaking  to  individuals  and  more  faithfulness 
in  prayer.”  “Yes,”  said  anotlier  woman,  “and  we  must  clear 
up  our  lives  of  all  that  liinders  and  defiles,  of  all  sins  and  clogs 
of  ever\'  kind,  tuba  drinking  and  every  evil  that  weakens  and 
compromises  the  life.”  Tliese  had  spoken  in  vernacular,  the  next 
anan  spoke  in  English.  “I  ask  regarding  my  earthlv  friends.” 
said  he,  “how  did  I win  them  to  be  my  friends,  and  I answer, 
'‘By  love.’  and  then.  I ask,  ‘Why  do  I not  win  men  to  be  the 
friends  of  Christ?’  and  I must  answer.  ‘For  lack  of  love.’  For 
■surely  if  we  had  such  love  of  God  for  men  in  our  hearts  as  we 
ihave  love  of  our  own  for  our  friends,  we  would  win  them  to 
Clirist  and  His  church.  We  do  not  show  weakne.ss  and  patience 
enough  nor  is  the  moral  difference  between  our  lives  and  the  lives 
that  do  not  profess  to  know  Clirist  as  distinct  and  apparent  as 
jt  ought  to  be.”  The  otlier  speakers  fell  back  into  the  local  dia- 
ilect.  “I  should  sav,  the  need  of  humility  and  zeal  in  service  and 
•more  purity  of  life,  is  the  great  need,”  said  one.  “The  neech 
of  faith  in  God  and  sure  confidence  in  His  word,”  said  another. 
Then  an  old  Spani.sh  niaestra  who  was  the  strength  of  the  Chris- 
itian  congregation  in  her  village  in  the  hills,  quoted  the  Lord’s 
words,  “First  ca.st  out  the  beam  out  of  thine  own  eA’e.”  “What 
■can  we  do.”  she  went  on,  “until  we  have  done  this  and  how  can 
we  do  this?  By  continuing  instant  in  prayer,  by  having  a Sun- 
day School  picture  roll  hanging  in  your  house  with  its  con.stant 
reminder,  by  remembering  the  words  of  Christ.”  What  other 
or  better  answers  than  these  would  any  groxip  of  earnest  Chris- 
tians have  given  at  home?  The  love  and  faith  of  many  of  these 

257 


9 — Report  of  DeputaMon. 


Filipino  Christians  will  be  one  of  our  most  dearly  treasured 
memories  forever.  If  it  be  said  that  they  are  but  as  little 
(Children,  it  is  enough  to  recall  that  there  are  some  words  of 
Christ  on  that  subject  which  it  were  better  for  us  all  not  to  for- 
get or  to  think  that  we  had  outgro\\m. 

VI.  The  Educatwnnl  Work  of  our  Mussiou. 

It  is  interesting  to  note  how  in  our  eflucational  as  well  as  in 
our  evangelistic  work  our  actual  enterprise  has  unfolded  in  ways 
<it  variance  with  our  original  plan.  In  his  report  on  his  visit 
to  the  Philippine  Islands  in  1901,  Dr.  Brown  reports  what  these 
f)lans  were  in  commenting  on  the  recommendations  of  Dr.  J.  C. 
J\.  Ewing  of  the  Punjab  mi.ssion  who  had  been  sent  to  the  Philip- 
pines by  the  Board  to  share  in  the  initial  determination  of  our 
mission  policy: 

“As  to  number  and  location,  (of  /our  higher  gnade  boys’ 
.schools)  Dr.  Ewing  recommended  ‘that,  in  view  of  the  large  out- 
lay of  the  Government  in  education,  we  ought  to  confine  our 
pducation  work  to  two  schools,  the  one  at  Dumaguete  for  Visayan 
and  another  to  be  establisherl  for  the  exclusive  purpose  of  rais- 
ing up  native  ministers  and  native  teachers  at  Iloilo.’  That 
was  wise  counsel  at  that  time  of  beginning;  but,  of  course,  as 
our  work  develops  in  other  fields,  more  institutions  will  be 
required.  The  whole  Cebuyan  group  is  too  exten.sive  a region 
to  be  permanently  tributary  to  one  school  at  almost  the  extreme 
southern  end  of  it,  while  in  the  great  territory  which  has  been 
assigned  to  us  on  the  island  of  Luzon,  there  will  be  in  time 
(many  boys  who  will  be  prevented  by  both  distance  and  dialect 
from  going  to  our  schools  in  the  Visayan  Islands,  who  might  be 
unfavorably  affected  by  the  atmosphere  of  such  a city  as  Manila 
and  whom  we  must  therefore  provide  for  in  some  central  prov- 
incial tovm  in  soiithem  Luzon.” 

In  the  actual  unfolding  of  our  work,  however,  and  the  chang- 
ing evangelistic  and  educational  conditions,  our  training  school 
has  been  established  not  at  Iloilo  but  at  Manila  and  no  one 
would  propose  now  that  we  should  establish  a mission  school  for 
)boys  anywhere  in  the  Islands  in  addition  to  Silliman  Institute 
at  Dumagiiete.  The  plan  proposed  in  Dr.  Brown’s  report  seemed 
the  wisest  plan  at  the  time  but  new  facts  and  conditions  arose 
to  modify  it.  The  same  thing  will  be  sure  to  happen  to  any 
plan  of  educational  work  that  we  might  make  now  reaching  for- 
ward over  any  long  course  of  years.  A great  deal  depends  on 
what  the  government  educational  system  may  be  and  do.  If 
political  conditions  .shift  and  public  education  is  abridged  or  its 
character  altered  or  its  language  changed,  entirely  new  educa- 
tional problems  will  arise.  The  possibility  of  changed  educa- 
tional policies  does  not  depend  alone  on  the  contingency  of 
altered  political  conditions.  These  conditions  might  indeed  alter 
without  any  change  in  educational  policy.  On  the  other  hand 
even  with  the  government  continuing  as  at  present,  economic 
and  social  conditions  may  in  time  alter  the  character  of  educa- 

258 


tion,  reducing,  for  example,  the  volume  of  general  literary  edu- 
cation and  increasing  agricultural  and  industrial  schools.  The 
Japanese  government  is  feeling  its  way  very  cautiously  in  its 
educational  policy  in  Chosen  lest  a school  product  should  be 
turned  out  unassimilable  by  society.  The  overwhelming  major- 
ity of  the  young  men  graduating  from  the  high  schools  in  the 
Philippine  Islands  to-day  have  political  and  professional  ambi- 
tions. Of  twenty-five  graduates  from  one  provincial  high  school, 
all  but  two  took  up  the  study  of  law.  There  is  a limit  to  the 
ability  of  any  society  to  absorb  lawv’ers  and  politicians  without 
an  acute  attack  of  political  indigestion.  Even  if  these  students 
ran  be  turned  into  medicine  and  teaching,  although  teaching  will 
absorb  a large  supply,  it  is  a qriestiou  whether  even  so  the 
product  may  not  sooner  or  later  be  in  excess  of  the  need.  In 
recognition  of  just  such  dangers  as  these,  a large  industrial  ele- 
ment is  incorporated  in  all  the  schools  in  the  Philippines,  and 
its  effect  has  been  radically  to  alter  the  attitiide  of  mind  of 
the  people  toward  other  work  than  that  of  the  professions.  But 
social  evolution,  e.specially  the  cross-grafting  of  the  western  type 
upon  the  eastera,  is  an  extremely  delicate  process  which  does 
not  surrender  itself  to  human  manipulation  but  manages  the 
men  who  think  they  are  managing  it,  as  the  -lapanese  and 
Chinese  have  both  discovered  and  as  history’  teaches  all  but  the 
blind.  What  ten  years  in  the  Philippine  Islands  may  develop 
no  one  can  foresee  and  without  such  foresight  it  is  inexpedient 
to  project  programs  which  are  sure  to  be  overthrown.  The  best 
we  can  do  is  to  deal  vith  conditions  year  by  year  and  to  keep 
alternative  courses  of  action  always  open  before  us.  These  con- 
siderations apply  to  our  medical  work  in  the  Philippines  as  well 
as  to  our  schools. 

1.  The  policy  of  the  mission  from  the  outset  of  making  the 
fulle.st  possible  use  of  the  jmblic  schools  has  been  wise.  It  is 
true  that  these  schools  have  b(Hm  carefully  Jion-religious  just  as 
in  the  United  States  and  have  fearlessly  taught  truth  just  as 
truth  and  without  the  need  of  any  other  authority.  At  once, 
accordingly,  the  Boman  church  antagonized  and  condemned  the 
.schools  and  sought  to  enter  into  competition  with  them  by 
parochial  schools.  This  hostility  has  not  di. sap  pea  red.  The  list 
of  private  schools  granted  government  recognition  issued  by  the 
Bureau  of  Education  shows  i:i  schools  authorized  to  grant  the 
B.  A.  degree  all  of  them  Boman  Catholic  with  the  exception  of 
Silliman  Institute;  II  listed  as  high  schools,  four  of  them  secu- 
lar, the  others  Boman  Catholic;  17  listed  as  intermediate,  all 
Boman  Catholic  except  the  three  Baptist  schools,  two  of  them 
at  Jaro  and  one  at  Bacolod ; and  7 li.sted  as  primary,  all  Boman 
Catholic  except  two.  In  many  centers  also  where  the  Boman 
church  does  not  have  competitive  schools  it  throws  its  influence 
against  the  attendance  of  its  children  at  the  public  schools.  As 
Dr.  Brown  said  in  his  report,  “Protestant  missionaries  are  not 
taking  this  position.  On  the  contrary’,  they  believe  in  the  pub- 

259 


lie  school  S3^stem.  In  every  place  I found  our  missionaries  out- 
spoken and  cordial  in  their  support  of  it.  It  is  true  that  the 
divorce  of  the  schools  from  relij^ion  is  so  complete  that,  apart 
from  the  local  assistance  that  may  be  rendered  in  a few  places 
by  teachers  who,  as  private  individuals,  attend  the  Protestant 
service.s,  the  only  advanta^^e  that  the  public  schools  will  be  to 
Protestantism  will  be  indirect,  in  creating  tho.se  conditions  of 
intellectual  freedom  in  which  Protestantism  best  thrives.  In 
other  words,  we  favor  the  public  school  system  becau.se  we  are 
American  citizens  rather  than  because  we  are  Protestants.  But 
this  should  not  i)revent  our  hearty  and  unqualifiefl  co-operation 
with  the  public  schools  as  individual  citizens.  We  believe  in  the 
sei)aration  of  Chui-ch  and  State,  and  we  do  not  a.sk  or  expect 
any  recognition  or  assistance  as  Protestants.”  Our  mi.ssion  has 
opened  a very  few  village  schools  in  communities  where  there 
were  no  j)ublic  schools  but  its  steadfast  policy  has  been  to  sup- 
])oi-l  the  i)ublic  school  .system.  This  is  the  right  policy.  In 
accoi-dance  witli  it  the  mission  and  the  church  should  see  that 
all  the  boys  and  girls  of  our  churches  attend  the  schools.  Loy- 
alty to  the  state  requires  this  and  it  is  indespensable  that  no 
shade  of  illiteracy  should  rest  on  the  evangelical  churches.  Their 
members  must  be  readers  of  the  Bible  and  in  their  intelligence 
as  well  as  in  their  character  they  should  be  the  most  respected 
and  intiueutial  element  in  their  communities. 

2.  Silliman  Institute.  This  wonderful  institution,  one  of  the 
jnost  prosperous,  influential  and  inspiring  schools  we  have  seen 
anywhere  in  the  world,  might  seem  at  first  to  be  an  exception  to 
the  mi.s.sion’s  policy  of  not  duplicating  or  competing  with  the 
T)ublic  schools,  but  the  exception  is  only  apparent  for  when  the 
school  began  it  had  the  field  to  it.self  even  as  a high  school  and 
in  its  college  work  it  is  doing  what  the  government  never  plan- 
iied  to  undertake.  So  far  from  looking  upon  it  as  a competitive 
in.stitution  the  Bureau  of  Education  regards  it  with  the  great- 
est favor,  holding  its  work  and  influence  in  high  e.steem  and 
recognizing  it  as  one  of  the  most  satisfactory  and  useful  imstitu- 
tions  in  the  Islands.  Its  graduates  and  those  of  the  Ateneo  de 
Manila  are  the  only  ones  whose  Bachelor  of  Arts  degrees  are 
recognized  by  the  government  for  admission  to  the  college  of  law 
.of  the  Eniversity.  It  has  over  TOO  students  of  whom  101  are  in 
the  college  department,  the  grade  of  whose  senior  work  is  roughly 
that  of  the  sophomore  year  in  a college  at  home,  226  of  the  stu- 
dents are  working  their  own  way  through.  Thei*e  is  a wonderful 
■spirit  of  zeal  and  good  fellowshiji  in  the  in.stitution.  It  is  like 
the  burst  of  new  life  through  nature  in  the  spring  time.  When 
Dr.  Hibbard  announced  that  because  of  the  di.sarraugemeuts 
involved  by  the  conferences  during  our  visit,  the  seniors  would 
have  no  classes  for  three  days  and  would  have  to  be  ready  to 
teach  cla.sses  for  which  missionary  teachers  had  been  caring,  the 
announcement  was  taken  as  a matter  of  course  just  as  a notice 
of  the  rearrangement  of  work  in  a woi’kshop.  The  boys  pour 

260 


lUp  to  the  institute  from  all  parts  of  the  Philippine  Islands 
though  naturally  a great  majority  come  from  the  Visayas  as  the 
following  table  indicates : 


Antique  

. . 4l 

Affusan  

. . . iL' 

Albay  

1 

Ou 

. . . . , 

Bohol  

16 

Camarines  . . . . 

..  1 

Capiz  

. ..  11 

Cavite  

. . 40 

Davao  

4 

I.  Sur 

4 

Iloilo  

. . 66 

Jolo  

, . . 5 

Levte  

4 

I.,agima  

4 

Misamis 

. . . 60 

Manila  

3 

Oc.  Negros  . . . 

..  65 

Or.  Negros  . . , 

Rizal  

1 

, . . X 

Surigao  .... 

o 

Tayabas  

..  3 

Zamboanga  . . , 

. . . 4 

The  school  is  known  and  admired  everywhere  through  the 
Islands.  An  old  friend  who  is  a high  school  teacher  far  up  in 
the  Island  of  Luzon  wrote  me,  “I  am  sure  yon  must  have  enjoyed 
your  visit  to  Silliinan  Institute.  The  work  that  school  is  doing 
is  wonderful.  But  they  ai-e  so  crowded.  I sent  a boy  there  for 
two  j'ears,  .so  I know  a good  deal  of  the  school.”  Not  only  is  it 
known  and  resj»ected  far  away  but  it  is  the  pride  of  the  com- 
uninity  and  the  i)rovince  in  which  it  is  located.  At  the  public 
iineeting  iu  the  assembly  hall  of  the  Institute  attended  by  the 
•Governor  and  j)rovincial  official.s,  the  superintendent  of  educa- 
tion, the  ])ublic  high  school,  and  many  others,  the  Treasurer  of 
the  province  made  the  following  address: 

“No  Filij>ino  is  insensible  to  the  honor  which  the  re])resenta- 
tives  of  the  Board  of  Foreign  Missions  in  New  York  have  bestow- 
tsl  on  us  by  their  visit  to  this  country  for  the  unselfish  pur- 
pose of  j)ronioting  the  work  that  is  being  accomplished  by  their 
missions  in  the.se  islands  To  you,  distinguished  visitors,  I extend 
the  most  cordial  welcome  of  the  ollicials  and  i)eo])le  of  Oriental 
■Negros,  and  hoj)e  that  your  short  stay  Avith  us  will  be  a ])leas- 
■ant  one. 

“It  is  beyond  my  j)ower  to  tittingly  expi’ess  our  sentiments  of 
gratitude  and  aj)])reciation  for  the  cause  Avhich  prompted  you 
to  cross  over  the  high  seas  and  come  to  this  solitary  place  with 
no  material  reward  in  view  but  the  satisfaction  of  doing  good 
to  others. 

“Silliinan  Institute,  which  is  the  best  exjiressiou  of  your 
humanitarian  work,  has  opened  the  door  of  ojiporl unity  to  count- 
less young  peojde,  who  are  eager  to  obtain  a liberal  Christian 
eilucation.  The  untiring  ell'orts  of  Dr.  Hibbard,  Dr.  Laugheim, 
and  their  associates  can  never  be  rewarded.  Their  devotion  to 
their  noble  work  has  extended  the  fame  of  Silliinan  Institute  to 
a degree  that  it  can  no  longer  accommodate  all  those  who  ask  for 
admission.  Hundreds  of  young  iieojile  from  all  over  the  islands 
are  turned  away  from  its  doors  every  year  for  lack  of  proper 
accommodations  to  remedy  this  sad  condition.  Your  representa- 
tives in  this  iirovince  have  started  a voluntary  contribution  for 
the  purjKi.se  of  enlarging  the  cajmeity  of  the  college  and  for 
other  beneficial  purposes.  That  the  people  responded  to  this 

261 


call,  is  evidenced  by  the  amount  already  subscribed,  which  means 
no  small  personal  sacrifice  on  the  part  of  all  those  who  have 
contributed,  taking  in  consideration  the  financial  depression 
now  prevalent  in  this  countrj'.  But  no  matter  how  willing  we 
are  to  help  ourselves  our  economic  possibilities,  do  not  permit  us 
to  go  far  without  your  help  and  the  generous  aid  of  the  Ameri- 
can people,  which  we  hope  will  be  continued  with  liberality  as 
heretofore. 

“I  again  thank  you  for  your  visit,  and,  in  conclusion,  peimit 
me  to  assure  you  that  whatever  will  be  the  future  reserved  to 
this  countrj^,  the  work  of  Silliman  Institute  will  always  remain 
one  of  the  connecting  links,  which  will  forever  unite  the  Filipino 
people  with  their  benefactors,  the  American  people.” 

It  would  be  easy  to  say  much  more  regarding  this  interesting 
and  useful  school.  If  the  saints  on  high  are  concerned  with  what 
goes  on  upon  the  earth,  the  spirits  of  Dr.  Ellinwood  and  Dr. 
.Silliman  who  projected  and  established  this  school,  must  rejoice 
with  a great  joy.  But  our  concern  here  is  with  the  questions  of 
school  policy  which  are  under  discussion. 

(1)  Extension  or  intension?  Hundreds  of  students  have  been 
turned  away  from  the  Institute  because  of  its  inability  to  house 
them  and  take  care  of  them  in  its  class  rooms.  Even  with  700 
students,  more  than  a third  are  externos  living  in  improvised 
dormitories  off  the  campus  who  “have  been  compelled  to  board 
with  town  people  where  the  food  is  not  the  be.st  and  the  living 
conditions  are  mo.st  unsanitary  and  in  many  cases  immoral.” 
These  students  should  all  be  housed  and  cared  for  upon  the 
campus.  About  half  of  the  externos  are  working  students  and 
the  other  half  are  paying  students  whose  fees  if  they  were  on 
the  campus  would  add  materially  to  the  resources  of  the  school. 
To  meet  the  needs  of  the  school  for  equipment  and  to  make  it  pos- 
sible to  increase  the  number  of  students  to  1,000  an  extension 
campaign  has  been  begun  in  the  Islands  looking  to  the  raising 
of  150,000  gold  on  the  field  with  the  hope  that  another  .^50,000 
may  be  provided  in  the  United  States  to  cover  the  following 
needs : 


Science  Biiilding §15,000 

Two  Boys’  Dormitories 30,000 

One  Girls’  Dormitory  and  equipment 30,000 

Water  and  sewer  systems 1,500 

Hospital  5,000 

Professor’s  Cottage  2,500 

Church  5,000 

Land  5,000 

Six  externo  dormitories 6,000 


Total  §100,000 

262 


In  spite  of  adverse  conditions,  Pesos  38,000  had  been  sub- 
scribed before  we  left  the  Islands  and  the  whole  field  bad  not 
yet  been  canvassed.  Of  this  amount  Pesos  3,000  bad  been  given 
by  the  Philippine  Assembly  toward  the  hospital  and  this  gift 
with  |2,000  gold  from  the  New  York  Women’s  Board  bad  made 
it  possible  to  proceed  with  a very  attractive  concrete  hospital 
building. 

This  additional  equipment  is  necessary  even  if  the  school 
should  not  be  enlarged,  to  enable  it  to  do  its  work  satisfactorily. 
At  present  almost  ever\"  available  square  foot  of  floor  space,  in- 
cluding the  tables  and  verandahs,  is  covered  with  boys  at  night. 
One  has  to  pick  his  way  with  care  to  avoid  stepping  on  them. 
The  cla.ss  rooms  are  inadequate  and  especially  for  elemental  and 
experimental  science  teaching  in  which  excellent  work  has  been 
done  and  which  should  be  one  of  the  most  important  parts  of 
the  curriculum,  an  additional  building  is  indispensable. 

The  question  has  been  raised,  however,  as  to  whether  we  ought 
either  now  or  in  the  future  to  consider  anj'^  limitation  of  the 
number  of  pupils.  Many  are  eager  for  an  enlargement  of  the 
school  to  1,000.  Some  even  advocate  a policy  of  securing  1,500 
students.  On  the  other  hand  it  may  be  doubted  whether  this 
will  be  found  practicable  or  wi.se,  if  i)racticable.  Only  one-sixth 
of  the  student  body  re])resent  students  of  college  grade  or  the 
two  upper  years  of  the  high  school.  High  school  and  college 
.students  together  repre.sent  le.ss  than  one-half  of  the  whole  stu- 
dent body.  It  is  certain  that  the  continued  development  of  the 
public  .school  system  and  the  ])rovision  of  primary  and  inter- 
mediate schools  will  tend  to  reduce  the  number  of  students  of 
the.se  grades  coming  to  Dumaguete,  although  there  will  always 
be  parents  in  a Latin  land  who  will  wish  to  send  their  boys 
away  at  a very  early  age  to  schools  that  can  surround  them  with 
the  moral  influences  which  prevail  in  Silliman  Institute.  In- 
deed one  danger  against  which  the  school  has  to  guard  constant- 
ly is  “that  fathers  of  boys  who  have  been  failures  elsewhere  are 
anxious  to  get  them  into  Silliman  with  the  idea  that  they  will 
be  reformed  and  made  into  men  there  when  all  else  has  failed.” 
But  even  if  the  number  of  students  obtainable  is  practically  un- 
limited, ought  we  1o  pursue  a j»olicy  of  the  largest  possible  ex- 
tensive work?  There  are  .some  who  answer  at  once  in  the  affir- 
mative. They  argue  that  it  is  desirable  to  scatter  the  good  in- 
fluences of  the  Institute  as  widely  as  possible,  to  seize  the  present 
opportunity  to  i)onr  out  a large  stream  of  young  men  eager  for 
education  and  res])onsive  to  the  spirit  and  ideals  of  the  Institute 
throughout  the  country.  They  point  out  that  the  curse  of  the 
Philippine  Islands  in  the  past  has  been  the  dominance  of  a small 
intellectual  aristocracy  and  contend  that  no  greater  service  could 
be  rendered  the  Islands  today  tlian  to  democratize  intelligence. 
Later,  they  say,  it  may  be  well  to  cut  down  the  numbers  and 
make  the  work  intensive,  but  not  now  when  every  boy  who  can 
be  brought  to  the  institution  and  moulded  by  it  is  both  a con- 

263 


tribution  to  the  political  body  of  the  commonwealth  and  a new 
center  of  evangelical  sympatlij'  and  sendee. 

On  the  other  hand  it  is  held  that  we  are  not  influencing  the 
large  number  we  now  have  as  we  ought.  There  are  only  .30 
teachers  for  over  700  students  and  of  these  30  hut  11  are'mis- 
sionary  teachers  and  4 trained  Filipino  teachers.  The  other  15 
are  only  .student  teachers.  It  is  argued,  and  unanswerably,  that 
15  regular  teachers  cannot  meet  the  needs  of  700  students  much 
le.ss  of  a thousand  or  fifteen  hundred,  and  that  the  addition  of 
two  or  three  more  missionaries,  urgently  appealed  for,  would 
not  begin  to  strengthen  the  staff  so  as  to  enable  it  to  meet  its 
responsibilities. 

(2)  Our  attitude  in  the  matter  of  an  extensive  or  intensive 
development  of  the  school  will  depend  not  a little  on  our  educa- 
tional ideal.  If  we  are  satisfied  with  a fair  superficial  education 
accompanied  by  the  wholesome  influence  of  an  institutional  life 
charged  with  moral  warmth  and  earnestness,  we  should  probably 
favor  as  large  a student  body  as  po.ssihle.  But  if  our  ideal  de- 
mands a thorough  intellectual  training  and  the  actual  equip- 
ment of  .students  for  efficient  work,  then  it  is  obvious  that  we 
cannot  achieve  this  ideal  even  with  our  pre.sent  number  of  stu- 
dents and  our  present  staff.  We  can  do  better  work  than  it  is 
possible  to  do  in  the  public  schools  and  we  can  hold  our  own 
at  least  for  the  present  at  the  head  of  educational  work  in  the 
Islands,  but  we  shall  begin  to  fail  as  soon  as  other  agencies  be- 
gin to  do  what  must  be  done  in  the  way  of  really  thorough  edu- 
cational work. 

(3)  Yet  another  element  of  the  problem  is  our  conception  of 
the  duty  of  a mission  institution  toward  the  individual  student. 
In  the  early  days  when  the  students  were  few  it  was  possible 
for  the  missionaries  to  deal  with  individual  pupils,  to  pick  out 
and  influence  the  choice  boys.  When  teachers  have  to  teach  five 
and  six  hours  a day  and  have  classes  of  fifty  and  sixty,  personal 
work  and  influence  become  practically  impossible.  One  ideal 
\\’ith  which  the  school  was  established  was  that  it  should  help 
to  provide  the  educated  ministry  needed.  “If  we  knew  in  ad- 
vance,” it  was  said,  ‘”which  particular  boys  would  become  church 
leaders,  we  could  confine  our  schools  to  them  and  make  our  in- 
stitutions simple  training  schools  for  Christian  workers.  But 
in  the  Philippines,  as  elsewhere,  the  only  way  that  we  can  ob- 
tain such  workers  is  to  bring  under  our  direct  influence  during 
the  formative  period  of  school  life  a considerable  number  of 
promising  boys,  mould  them  spiritually  as  well  as  intellectually, 
and  from  them  select  those  who  have  the  requisite  qualifications 
aud  who  appear  to  be  called  of  God.”  A number  of  boys  who 
have  studied  at  Silliman  have  gone  into  Christian  work,  but  of 
the  fifty  who  have  been  graduated  from  the  institution  I think 
only  five  have  gone  on  to  evangelistic  work  while  seven  have 
become  teachers  and  the  other  thirty-eight  have  gone  into  vari- 
ous secular  occupations.  More  students  were  looking  forward 

264 


to  the  ministry  when  there  were  only  two  hundred  in  the  insti- 
tution than  have  that  purpose  now.  It  certainly  is  not  the  num- 
ber of  students  which  in  itself  is  determinative  in  such  matters, 
it  is  the  amount  of  influence  that  can  be  brought  to  bear  on  the 
individual  students  and  the  character  of  the  corporate  influence 
of  the  school.  If  we  could  hope  to  have  a faculty  sufficient  to 
deal  adequately  with  each  individual,  to  maintain  the  educa- 
tional standards  which  we  ought  to  seek  and  to  make  the  spirit 
of  the  whole  school  even  more  penetratingly  efficient  than  it  is 
now,  we  might  without  fear  take  in  as  many  students  as  are 
available.  But  if  the  faculty  that  can  be  provided  can  only  ac- 
compli.sh  these  ends  for  a limited  number  of  students,  then  sure- 
ly to  the  limited  number  we  should  confine  ourselves.  For  it  is 
perfectly  certain  that  in  the  Philippines  as  elsewhere  our  in- 
fluence and  mission  in  educational  work  depend  upon  our  being 
able  to  provide  intellectual  and  moral  training  qualitatively  of 
a firmer  and  better  sort  than  any  one  else  can  provide. 

f4)  Before  going  to  Dumaguete  we  were  under  the  impres- 
sion that  Silliman  Institute  was  predominantly  an  industrial 
school.  This  is  a mi.staken  impression.  The  school  does  an  in- 
valuable industrial  work,  but  the  required  industrial  work  is 
less  than  in  the  public  schools.  In  the  public  schools  industrial 
work  is  requii*ed  of  all  pupils  during  the  three  years  of  the  in- 
termediate school.  “No  normal  pupil  is  promoted  from  a pri- 
mary or  intemiediate  grade  without  participating  in  industrial 
work.”  At  Rilliman  Institute  the  required  work  is  two  hours 
a week  for  two  years  in  the  intermediate  .school,  one  hour  of 
theoiw  or  drawing  and  one  hour  of  agriculture  or  carpentering 
in  each  of  the  two  years.  Apart  from  this  the  only  industrial 
Avork  is  that  done  by  the  working  students  who  are  paying  their 
way  through.  A few  other  boys  attend  the  classes  in  mechani- 
cal drawing  or  woodwork  or  use  the  shop,  but  there  is  no  indus- 
trial work  recpiired  of  ]>ay  pu])ils  in  the  upper  four  years.  The 
students  do  not  want  it  and  a large  number  of  parents  would 
take  their  children  out  of  the  school  if  it  v'ere  required.  The 
industrial  work  carried  on  by  the  work  students  is  admirable. 
It  is  however  confined  as  far  as  ti-ades  are  concerned  to  the 
intenio  working  .students,  between  00  and  100  in  number,  who 
learn  cai'pentering,  weaving,  blacksmithing,  machine  repairing, 
])luinbing,  jjainting,  electric  lighting,  etc.  The  182  externo  work- 
ing students  work  half  a day  each  per  week  but  their  work  is 
the  care  of  the  grounds.  The  shops  have  sent  a most  creditable 
exhibit  to  the  Exposition  in  Ran  Francisco.  The  present  plan 
may  be  the  wisest  practicable  one  and  yet  I think  the  question 
is  worth  careful  re-study  by  tho.se  who  are  giving  their  lives  to  the 
school. 

In  addition  to  its  campus  of  24  acres  the  school  has  a farm  of 
fifty  or  sixty  acres  which  cost  Pesos  2500  and  which  is  irrigable 
but  which  it  has  been  found  is  too  far  away  for  practical  use. 
It  would  l>e  desirable  to  exchange  it  for  land  closer  at  hand  to 
be  used  for  agricultural  instruction. 

265 


(5)  As  has  already  been  intimated,  the  school  has  had  under 
its  influence  since  it  was  established  about  5,000  students  of 
whom  fifty  have  completed  the  course  and  been  graduated.  The 
same  question  arises  which  is  met  in  even."  mis.sion  field,  and 
also  at  home,  as  to  whether  the  educational  interests  of  these 
fifty  should  control  the  curriculum  and  plan  of  the  institution 
or  the  interests  of  the  4,950.  Will  it  not  be  necessary  in  our 
schools  to  introduce  some  differentiation  of  training  and  op- 
portunity between  the  comparatively  small  number  who  are 
going  on  to  complete  the  cour.se  and  the  large  number  who  drop 
out  along  the  way  and  who  need  a discipline  contemplating  not 
something  beyond  to  which  they  do  not  intend  to  advance, 
but  rather  the  actual  conditions  of  life  into  which  they  are  soon 
going  and  for  which  their  few  years  in  the  school  are  their  ex- 
clusive educational  preparation? 

(6)  One  other  problem  in  all  our  mission  institutions,  and 
not  more  here  than  elsewhere,  is  the  problem  of  following  up 
former  students,  both  graduates  and  those  who  left  without 
gradiaation.  Bread  sown  upon  the  waters  will  come  back  some- 
times but  not  always.  A great  deal  more  would  come  back  in 
our  mission  fields  if  there  were  some  following  after.  Every 
gradiiate,  at  least,  should  be  held  fast  by  friendship  and  occa.s- 
ional  communication,  where  the  number  of  graduates  is  as  small 
as  it  is  as  yet  in  Dumaguete.  Boys  baptized  in  the  school  or 
drawn  close  to  the  church  should  be  held  to  and  followed  after 
or  brought  in  touch  with  the  nearest  missionary  or  evangelist 
who  could  anchor  them  in  Christian  character  and  work.  Eighty 
of  the  boys  in  the  school  who  had  been  baptized  last  year  did  not 
return  this  year.  Have  these  boys  been  gathered  into  the  fellow- 
ship of  the  Christian  congregations  nearest  to  their  present 
homes?  Many  boys  join  the  Dumaguete  church  and  do  not  trans- 
fer their  letters  on  leaving.  Often  probably  this  is  impossible  as 
they  go  to  communities  where  there  are  no  churches,  but  each 
should  be  specially  cared  for. 

(7)  The  church  in  Dumaguete  pre.sents  the  same  problem  as 
the  church  in  many  college  communities  where  the  local  element 
in  the  church  is  overshadowed  by  the  college  element.  The  prob- 
lem is  more  difficult  because  the  overshadowing  in  Dumaguete 
is  so  overwhelming.  As  a matter  of  fact,  in  Dumaguete  city 
the  church  as  yet  has  made  only  a slight  impression.  Would  it 
not  be  a good  thing  both  for  the  community  and  for  the  college 
if  the  Christian  forces  of  the  college  should  carry  on  an  earnest 
evangelistic  campaign  with  the  object  of  developing,  in  the  town 
a local  church  that  would  have  a life  and  independence  of  its 
own  apart  from  the  college  element  and  give  the  boys  in  the 
college,  who  will  form  their  ideal  of  an  evangelical  church  from 
what  they  see  in  Dumaguete,  a different  conception  from  what 
they  must  carry  away  at  present.  There  are  many  earnest 
Christian  boys  in  the  college  also  to  whom  the  experience  of 
such  a campaign  would  be  helpful  and  might  prove  the  occasion 
of  their  call  to  the  ministry. 


266 


3.  A Girls’  School  for  the  Visayans.  The  only  missionary 
girls’  school  in  the  Visayan  group  is  the  small  hoarding  school 
of  the  Baptist  Mission  at  Jaro,  near  Iloilo.  Our  Philippine  Mis- 
sion is  unanimous  in  its  conviction  that,  ready  as  it  would  be 
to  send  all  our  Christian  girls  who  wish  to  go  to  a Christian 
boarding  school  to  Jaro,  if  it  were  practicable,  the  conditions  of 
distance  and  expense  make  it  impossible,  and  the  Baptist  mis- 
sionaries agree  in  this  view.  Circumstances  seem  to  require  ac- 
cordingly that  just  as  there  are  two  Christian  schools  for  boys 
.serving  the  two  sides  of  the  Visayan  group,  the  Baptist  school 
in  Jaro  and  our  school  in  Dumaguete,  so  there  will  need  to  be 
two  girls’  schools,  the  Bapti.st  school  in  Jaro  and  a school  of  our 
own,  ministering  to  the  eastern  islands  of  Cebu,  Bohol,  Leyte, 
and  the  province  of  Oriental  Negros.  The  mission  advocates 
the  establishment  of  this  school  as  a department  of  Silliman  In- 
stitute. The  extension  plans  of  the  Institute  provide  a girls’ 
dormitory  for  the  purpose.  There  is  no  difficulty  about  the  girls 
taking  their  school  work  in  the  same  classes  with  the  boys.  The 
government  schools  are  co  educational  and  so  is  Mackenzie  Col- 
lege in  Brazil  where  the  general  conditions  are  similar.  Hun- 
dreds of  fathers  who  send  their  sons  to  Silliman  Institute  have 
asked  to  be  allowed  to  send  their  daughters  also.  When  the 
students  were  asked  recently  to  hand  in  the  names  of  .sisters  or 
female  members  of  their  families  who  would  come  to  Silliman 
if  provision  were  made  for  them,  the  names  of  over  300  girls 
were  handed  in.  The  Institute  has  had  girl  students  in  the  past 
and  at  the  time  of  our  visit  there  was  one  young  women  taking 
college  work  who  although  alone  among  over  700  boys  carried 
herself  with  perfect  tact  and  decorum  and  with  the  greatest  re- 
spect and  courte.sy  on  the  part  of  the  boys.  We  considered  the 
que.stion  in  its  various  aspects  both  in  our  own  mi.ssion  and  in 
conference  with  the  Baptist  missionaries  and  haA’e  no  hesitation 
in  recommending  that  the  plan  of  the  mission  for  a girls’  de- 
j>artment  of  Silliman  Institute  be  approved.  IMost  of  our  girls 
from  the  island  of  Panay  will  doubtless  go  to  tlie  Baptist  Girls’ 
School  in  Jaro  just  as  most  of  onr  young  men  in  the  Island  go 
to  the  Baptist  school  for  boys.  This  seems  to  be  much  the  wisest 
plan  of  co-operation, — that  the  higher  educational  institutions 
in  the  Panayaii  dialect  of  Visayan  should  be  carried  on  by  the 
Baptists  and  the  higher  institutions  in  the  Cebuyan  dialect  by 
our  mi.s.sion.  The  expense  of  this  development,  beyond  equip- 
ment and  the  addition  of  a matron  for  the  dormitory  and  per- 
haps one  more  woman  teacher  at  Dumaguete,  will  not  be  great. 
The  boys  and  girls  who  come  to  these  schools  come  largely  from 
homes  that  can  meet  the  expenses  or  if  they  do  not  they  can  con- 
tribute work  which  will  largely  cover  the  cost  of  their  training. 
Some  of  the  Boman  Catholic  convents  for  girls  charge  as  much 
as  fifty  pesos  a month,  and  Silliman  Institute  with  a total  bud- 
get of  about  .S2.o,000  gold,  received  la.st  year  in  appropriations 
from  the  Board  only  gold,  apart  from  salaries  of  the  mis- 
sionaries, over  $24,000  being  raised  on  the  field. 

267 


4.  Tlie  other  educational  institutions  of  the  mission  are  the 
Union  Bible  Seminar}^  in  Manila  and  the  Bible  School  for  Girls. 
Dr.  Ellinwood’s  name  is  associatcnl  with  both  of  these  institu- 
tions, and  one  is  sometimes  at  a loss  to  know  which  institution 
is  intended  when  the  j)hrase  Ellinwood  Seminary  is  u.sed. 

The  T'nion  Bible  Seminary  r-epresents  a co-operation  in  the- 
ological teachin"  of  the  Methodists.  United  Brethren  and  Pres- 
byter-ian  Missions.  Ther*e  ar'e  over  fifty  students,  of  whom  about 
a half  are  from  the  Methodist  territory,  a third  from  Presby- 
terian and  a sixth  fr*om  the  United  Brethren.  The  Baptist  Mis- 
sion in  Panay  has  appr-oved  of  the  union  seminar;v  plan  and 
agreed  to  co-operate  but  both  distance  and  difference  of  dialect 
have  made  it  impossible  for  it  to  join  pr-actically  in  the  wor-k.  The 
Congregational  Mission  in  Mindanao  has  also  a7)pr-ove<l  the  plan 
and  expects  to  give  assistance  on  the  teaching  staff,  birt  its  field 
is  far  away  to  the  south  and  it  r*emains  to  be  seen  whether  it 
will  be  able  to  send  any  students.  Tt  is  hoped  that  the  Chris- 
tian Mission  will  see  its  way  to  join  in  the  work.  It  is  an  im- 
mense advantage  to  have  this  wor-k  done  co-operatively.  It 
makes  possible  a much  moi*e  adeqirate  and  efficient  facrrlty  and 
it  draws  together  the  coming  ministr-y  of  the  different  churches 
in  a way  that  7)i-omises  even  greater  harmony  and  efficiency  of 
denominational  co-operation  in  the  future. 

(It  Thus  far  the  .semiuarA-  has  not  been  able  to  draw  many 
students  from  Silliman  Institute.  The  Institirte  is  far  away. 
Its  students  come  mainly  fi-orn  the  Visayan  dialects  and  as  yet 
too  small  a number  of  theru  have  been  seeking  the  rrrinistrj’.  It 
woirld  be  verA-  desirable  to  have  a more  special  effort  made  to 
])resent  the  claims  of  the  ministrA*  and  the  opportrrnity  offered 
in  the  Union  Theological  Seminary  to  the  Silliman  students. 
This  should  be  pr*irnarily  done  by  the  facrrlty,  birt  an  occasional 
visit  from  one  of  the  teachers  in  the  Seminary  or  from  .some 
strong  Filipino  minister  woirld  help. 

(21  There  is  a gi*eat  need  of  more  trained  evangelists  and 
preachers  in  islands  like  Cebu  and  Bohol  and  Leyte  and  indeed 
in  Panay  and  Negros  also.  To  send  young  men  from  these  dis- 
tant islands  to  Manila  is  expensive  and  there  is  the  risk  that 
after  a few  years  in  ^Manila  they  will  be  disinclined  to  return 
to  remote  country  places.  Among  the  suggestions  of  relief  that 
have  been  made  are  the  opening  of  a training  department  at 
Silliman  Institute  or  of  a training  school  at  some  other  point 
in  the  Visayans.  Srrch  an  institirtion.  as  experience  in  other 
fields  has  shown,  would  be  sure  sooner  or  later  to  develop  into 
an  embryonic  theological  seminary.  It  would  seem  better  not 
to  run  the  risk  of  srrch  a development  now  brrt  to  make  frrrther 
efforts  to  send  choice  young  men  to  ^lanila  and  to  develop  other 
workers  by  local  institutes  and  conferences  and  by  personal  mis- 
sionary grridauce. 

(3)  To  have  a single  institrrtion  for  the  training  of  all  the 
ministers  and  evangelists  in  any  country  is  not  Avithout  its 

268 


perils.  It  may  produce  too  much  uniformity  of  type  both  of 
opinion  and  of  method.  A .single  institution  for  the  training  of 
officers  in  an  army  or  navy  may  or  may  not  be  desirable,  but 
whatever  objections  there  are  to  such  institutions  for  army  and 
naval  officers,  there  are  certainly  very  real  dangers  in  the  case 
of  the  ministry.  The  danger  is  greatly  lessened  in  a union  theo- 
logical school  where  teachers  from  different  denominations  in- 
troduce a desirable  variety  but  even  here  the  peril  exists  and 
should  be  kept  in  mind  and  lessened  as  far  as  may  be  by  giving 
the  students  as  ample  and  direct  a contact  with  life  as  may  be 
pos.sible.  This  the  seminary  is  seeking  to  do,  I think  success- 
fully. 

T’/7.  Work  for  Americans.  The  largest  body  of  Americans  of 
cour.se  is  found  in  Manila,  where  they  do  not  exceed  4,000  or 
so.  Our  only  other  stations  where  there  is  any  considerable 
number  of  Americans  are  Iloilo,  Cebu  and  Alba}’.  Elsewhere 
there  are  .smaller  groups  of  a score  or  less.  Among  our  own 
people  in  the  Islands  there  are  many  who  represent  and  who 
sustain  our  best  ideals  and  traditions,  in  whom  the  missionaries 
find  their  best  friends  and  supporters,  and  the  value  of  whose 
influence,  in  the  accomplishment  of  our  national  mis.sion  in  the 
Philippines,  is  incalculable.  In  addition  to  lthe.se  men  and 
women  who  hold  fast  and  show  forth  their  Christian  faith,  there 
are  many  more  of  uprightness  and  moral  integrity  but  of  un- 
pronounced Christian  ])osition.  They  appreciate  what  the  mis- 
.sionaries  are  doing  and  are  glad  to  support  Christian  Avorship 
for  the  American  comniunity,  and  even  when  they  do  not  them- 
.selves  attend  they  are  glad  to  know  that  the  work  is  done.  There 
are  at  the  other  extreme,  of  course,  as  in  every  western  stream 
that  has  flowed  over  these  eastern  lamls,  the  broken  men  and  the* 
derelicts,  or  those  whose  morality  at  home  was  wholly  external, 
a limitation  of  the  envirf)nment  from  which  they  have  now  been 
loosed.  To  all  these  dirt'erent  types  our  American  missionaries 
owe  a great  duty  and  a duty  whch  almost  all  of  them  have  .splen- 
didly met.  It  is  delightful  to  see  throughout  the  Islands,  the 
cordiality  of  relationship  between  the  missionaries  and  other 
Americans.  Even  though  it  takes  time,  the  missionaries  are  do- 
ing right  in  carryiiig  the  amount  of  i)astoral  work,  much  of  it 
of  necessity  hidden  from  sight,  Avhich  many  of  them  are  doing. 
Wherever  the  size  of  the  community  justifies  it,  it  is  desirable  for 
them  to  try  to  maintain  a regular  English  .service,  and  elsewhere 
there  ought  certainly  to  be  an  occasional  .service  at  those  times 
when  the  dear  memories  of  the  past  open  the  most  careless 
hearts  to  approach. 

In  some  of  the  military  posts  as  at  Albay,  there  are  no  chaj)- 
lains.  Here  there  is  a .special  field  for  work  in  co-operation  with 
Christian  officers  in  reaching  young  men  who  need  all  the  helj) 
that  Christ  can  give.  The  largest  of  the  army  posts,  at  Fort 
McKinley  and  Corregidor,  have  their  own  chaplains.  At  Fort 
McKinley  there  are  5,000  soldiers  who  have  three  hours’  drill  and 

269 


eight  hours’  leisure  a day.  That  fact  alone  describes  in  adequate 
terms  the  need  and  opportunity. 

In  Manila  a union  has  been  happily  consummated  between  the 
two  American  churches,  the  Central  Methodist  Episcopal  church 
and  the  Fir.st  Presbyterian  church.  The  union  has  proved  a 
great  success.  The  two  churches  have  melted  together  in  per- 
fect oneness  to  form  a strong,  influential  congregation,  a blessing 
to  the  city,  to  the  Islands,  and  to  the  Far  East.  The  united 
church  has  been  singularly  fortunate  in  its  first  pastor,  the  Rev. 
Bruce  Wright,  who  has  the  confidence  and  affection  of  the  peo- 
ple and  who  is  leading  the  church  with  great  .success  in  its  en- 
larged and  strengthened  activity.  It  is,  of  course,  uncertain 
how  large  the  American  community  will  be  in  Manila  either  in 
the  near  or  the  distant  future  but  the  size  of  the  congregations 
and  the  demands  for  the  church’s  work  at  present  call  either 
for  an  enlargement  of  the  pre.sent  building  or  for  the  construc- 
tion of  more  adefjuate  buildings  elsewhere.  The  church  should 
certainly  have  the  facilities  which  it  needs  for  its  work  and  is 
ready  to  do  everything  in  its  power  to  provide  these.  Some  ad-* 
justments  of  the  property  interests  bi*ought  into  the  union  by 
the  Methodists  and  the  Presbyterians  will  be  called  for  and 
should  be  made.  It  is  not  necessary,  however,  to  deal  here  with 
the  questions  involved  as  they  will  need  to  be  settled  by  confer- 
ence and  correspondence. 

VIII.  Medical  Work.  Dr.  Bovaird  is  dealing  in  an  adequate 
way  with  the  questions  of  the  medical  work  in  his  section  of  our 
report.  It  is  only  appropriate  to  say  here  that  valuable  as  the 
w’ork  which  more  medical  missionaries  in  the  Philippine  Islands 
could  do,  it  seems  to  us  that  the  greater  need  in  the  Philippines 
•of  other  kinds  of  work,  and  the  greater  need  for  medical  mis- 
sionaries in  other  fields  than  the  Philippines,  justify  the  view 
already  expressed  that  in  the  development  of  our  enterprise  in 
the  Islands  medical  work  at  the  present  time  should  be  empha- 
sized last.  Where  we  have  medical  work  and  have  built  or  are 
building  hospitals,  three  points  should  be  kept  in  mind.  First, 
we  should  limit  the  extent  of  the  work  imdertaken  so  as  to  do 
with  a maximum  of  efficiency  and  success  that  which  is  attempt- 
ed. Second,  we  should  make  thorough  evangelistic  use  of  the 
hospitals  both  by  work  in  the  ho.spital  and  by  following  up  the 
patients  when  they  leave  either  directly  or  through  the  evangel- 
ists in  their  communities.  Third,  in  building  our  hospitals  we 
should  have  in  mind  the  possibility  of  their  transformation  into 
dormitories  for  high  school  pupils  in  case,  for  any  reason,  we 
desire  to  discontinue  the  medical  work. 

In  saying  this,  however,  it  is  important  to  guard  against 
wrong  impressions.  There  is  a wonderful  field  for  the  medical 
missionary  in  the  Philippines.  The  influence  and  missionary 
efficiency  of  Dr.  Hall,  Dr.  Langheim,  Dr.  Graham  and  Dr.  Miller 
and  the  memories  which  the  people  of  southern  Luzon  retain  of 
Dr.  Carter  revealed  such  a chance  for  the  rich  use  of  life  as  ought 

270 


to  prove  irresistible  to  young  doctors  in  the  overcrowded  pro- 
fession at  home.  It  may  be  that  within  a few  years  it  will  seem 
desirable  to  enlarge  the  medical  work.  On  the  other  hand  there 
may  be  a contrary  development.  In  either  case  it  is  clear  that 
the  present  urgent  need  is  for  the  strengthening  of  our  directly 
evangelistic  activity. 

IX.  Some  Miscellaneous  Questions.  1.  Union  and  co-opera- 
tion. From  the  beginning  the  Philippine  Islands  have  presented 
a happy  illustration  of  harmonious  feeling  among  all  the  mis- 
sions entering  the  field  and  practical  and  eflflcient  co-operation 
among  almost  all  of  them.  Territorial  adjustments  were  soon 
made  which  allotted  us  outside  of  the  city  of  Manila  and  its 
province  of  Kizal,  where  we  shared  responsibility  with  others, 
a sole  responsibility  in  the  seven  provinces  of  southern  Luzon 
with  a population  of  approximately  1,150,000,  in  the  island  of 
Panay  with  a population  of  approximately  250,000  or  one-third 
of  the  population  of  the  Island,  and  in  the  Cebuyan  group  of  the 
'S'isayas  with  over  1,000,000  people.  Other  denominations  accepted 
their  spheres  of  responsibility,  and  as  new  forces  have  come  into 
the  field  since,  it  has  been  possible  in  the  main  to  provide  for 
them  without  overlapping  or  friction.  There  have  been  and  there 
are  .still  some  problems  of  adjustment  in  the  island  of  Luzon 
which  are  not  easy  but  which  must  surely  be  worked  out  in  the 
right  spirit.  Between  our  workers  and  the  Baptist  workers  in 
Panay  and  the  Methodist  workers  in  Luzon,  with  whom  we  are 
most  closely  associated,  the  relations  have  been  just  what  they 
ought  to  be  among  missionaries  engaged  in  a common  task. 

At  the  very  outset  an  organization  known  as  the  Evangelical 
Union  was  established  which  in  its  constitution  defined  its  ob- 
jects to  be  “to  unite  all  the  evangelical  forces  in  the  Philip- 
pine Islands  for  the  purpo.se  of  securing  comity  and  efi^ective- 
ness  in  their  missionary  operation.”  Its  executive  committee 
was  charged  “to  meet  and  confer  with  workers  of  any  society 
that  are  not  now  parties  to  this  agreement  and  to  confer  with 
and  advise  representatives  of  societies  arriving  in  the  future  as 
to  the  location  of  their  respective  fields”  and  urge  them  to  be- 
come parties  to  the  union,  and  it  was  decided  also  that  the 
name  Iglesia  Evangelica  should  be  used  for  the  Filipino  churches 
which  should  be  raised  up,  the  denominational  name,  when  nec- 
essary’, to  be  adde<l  in  i)arenthesis,  e.  g.,  “Iglesia  Evangelica  de 
Malibay  (Mission  Methodista  Ep.)”  The  Presbyterian,  Metho- 
dists, United  Brethren,  and  Baptist  churches  joined  in  the  union 
and  apportioned  the  responsibility  in  the  way  that  has  been 
indicated:  Central  and  North  Luzon  to  the  Methodists  and  Unit- 
ed Brethren,  Southern  Luzon  to  the  Presbyterians,  and  Panay 
and  Negros  and  later  the  Visayan  group  to  the  Baptists  and 
Presbyterians. 

The  work  of  the  union  has  been  most  helpful  both  to  the  mis- 
sions and  in  influencing  moral  sentiment  in  the  Islands.  It  is 
now  proposed  that  a further  step  should  be  taken  which  Dr. 
Rodgers  describes  as  follows: 


271 


“Our  dream  at  present  is  the  maintenance  of  the  statu  quo  in 
regard  to  what  we  call  local  and  provincial  councils,  that  is,  con- 
serve as  units,  the  Presbyteries,  District  Conferences  and  Con- 
ventions. They  nowhere  overlap  except  in  the  case  of  the  Chris- 
tians and  that  really  in  one  instance  only,  here  in  Manila. 

“Then  have  territorial  conventions  (on  linguistic  lines)  which 
shall  study  in  an  advisory  manner  the  needs  of  their  particular 
field.  This  will  bring  the  Presbyterians  and  Baptists  together  in 
the  western  Visajms,  the  Christians,  United  Brethren  and  Meth- 
odists in  the  Ilocano  field  and  the  same  with  us  in  the  Tagalog 
field. 

“Some  day,  even  .soon,  we  can  have  a Council  to  cover  the 
Islands,  representing  the  churches,  and  not  the  missions,  which 
shall  study  in  an  advisory  manner  the  whole  situation. 

“A  trial  of  such  arrangement  for  two  or  three  years  should 
enable  us  to  do  what  Dr.  North  calls  ‘wear  away  our  limitations’ 
and  through  custom  and  association  bring  us  to  the  point  where 
some  identical  system  will  be  possible.  We  do  not  propose  a 
Union  of  Missions  but  of  churche.s,  the  missions  to  continue  in 
their  respective  spheres  of  influence.” 

The  full  report  of  the  committee  of  the  Evangelical  Union  on 
the  subject  which  is  to  be  submitted  to  the  various  missions  is 
as  follows: 


REPORT  OP  COMMITTEE  ON  CHURCH  UNION 

The  Committee  on  Church  Union  appointed  through  the  Ev- 
angelical Union,  and  representing  the  Presbyterian,  Methodist 
Episcopal,  United  Brethren,  Baptist  and  Christian  Missions  and 
churches,  hereby  submit  to  the  above  mentioned  churches  and 
missions  and  to  the  Congregational  and  Christian  Alliance  Mis- 
sions, the  following  report  and  recommendations: 

In  view  of  the  overwhelming  desire  on  the  part  of  practically 
all  our  ministers  and  workers  that  the  ideal  of  a united  Evan- 
gelical Church  in  the  Philippines  be  realized,  the  Committee  on 
Church  Union,  representing  the  above  mentioned  churches  and 
missions,  recommends  that  the  Evangelical  Churches  of  Christ 
in  the  Philippine  Islands,  already  one  in  faith  in  and  in  loyalty  to 
a common  Savior  and  in  hope  and  trust  in  a common  salvation, 
living  in  the  same  spirit  of  love  and  committed  to  one  and  the 
self-same  task  of  winning  these  Islands  to  a like  allegiance, 
take  immediate  action  along  the  following  lines,  looking  toward 
that  outward  unit}"  which  shall  make  complete  in  fulfilment  here 
the  prayer  of  our  Lord  and  Saviour  “that  they  all  may  be  one.” 

We  Recommend — I. — That  all  churches  or  communions,  par- 
ties to  this  agreement,  use  for  their  churches,  the  common  name. 
The  Evangelical  Christian  Church  of  the  Philippine  Islands 
using  the  name  of  the  parent  body  in  parenthesis  in  case  of  ne- 
cessity in  legal  documents. 

II. — That  a General  Advisory  Council  be  elected  in  the  fol- 
lowing manner  and  with  the  powers  hereafter  mentioned: 

272 


1.  The  Membership  of  this  Council  shall  consist  of 

(a)  Three  (3)  members  to  be  chosen  annually  by  each  of  the 
communions  mentioned  above,  the  election  to  be  by  the  highest 
representative  body  of  each  communion  in  the  manner  in  which 
each  shall  decide. 

(b)  One  (1)  member  to  be  chosen  by  each  mission  which 
shall  be  party  to  this  agreement. 

2.  Powers  and  Duties  of  the  Council. 

(a)  This  Council  shall  have  advisory  power  only,  except 
so  far  as  the  interests  of  the  churches  shall  be  entrusted  to  it 
by  the  communions  or  churches. 

(b)  It  may  serve  as  mediator  in  questions  that  may  arise  be- 
tween the  churches  or  communions  represented  therein. 

(c)  It  shall  study,  devise  and  promote  all  possible  methods 
of  union,  united  or  affiliated  effort. 

(d)  It  shall  study,  prepare  and  propose  to  the  various  com- 
munions and  churches  plans  whereby  organic  union  of  the  Ev- 
angelical Christian  Churches  may  be  brought  about. 

(e)  It  shall  have  power  to  admit  to  representation  on  this 
Council  any  Communion  or  Church,  and  shall  have  power  to  de- 
cide when  such  representation  shall  cease. 

3.  Rules. 

(a)  This  Council  shall  meet  annually. 

(b)  It  shall  elect  as  officers,  a President,  Vice-President, 
Secretary’  and  Treasurer. 

(c)  The  expenses  of  the  Council  shall  be  borne  by  the  com- 
munions and  churches  represented  thereon. 

(d)  A quorum  of  the  Council  for  the  present  shall  consist 
of  ten  members,  representing  at  least  three  communions. 

(e)  On  the  approval  of  these  resolutions  and  the  appoint- 
ment of  representatives  on  the  Council  and  the  certification  of 
said  appointment  to  the  .secretary  of  this  Committee  on  Church 
Union,  the  chairman  of  said  committee  shall  convene  the  first 
meeting  of  the  Council  and  preside  thereat  until  its  regular  offi- 
cers are  elected. 

Upon  the  organization  of  this  Council  the  committee  on  Church 
Union  shall  be  dis.solved. 

III.  We  recommend  that  Local  Councils  be  established  on 
the  same  lines  and  with  the  .same  powers  within  their  respective 
districts,  and  that  steps  be  taken  to  convene  such  councils  as 
soon  as  possible  in  the  following  districts,  the  number  of  which 
may  be  increa.sed  as  it  may  seem  be.st: 

Ilocano  District — including  the  Cagayan  Valley,  Pangasinan 
and  Tarlac. 

Tagalog  District — including  Pampanga  and  the  Bicol  Prov- 
inces. 


273 


Eastern  Visayan  District — including  Samar,  Leyte  and  Min- 
danao. 

Western  Visayan  District. 

N.  B. — The  term  “communion”  is  used  in  these  resolutions  to 
mean  “denomination”  while  the  word  “church”  is  u.sed  to  mean 
a local  congregation. 

2.  Term  of  service  and  furlough.  Several  of  the  missions, 
like  our  own,  have  a six-j'ear  term  of  service.  With  some  the 
term  is  five  years.  The  period  of  furlough  is  one  year  plus  the 
time  of  travel.  I think  ours  is  the  only  mission  with  the  in- 
termediate furlough  arrangement,  by  which  missionaries  may 
take  a six-months’  furlough  at  the  end  of  a three-year  term  of 
service,  the  Board  meeting  half  their  traveling  expenses  in  this 
case  instead  of  all  as  it  does  on  the  regular  furlough  at  the  end 
of  six  years.  There  are  objections  to  the  six-year  term  of  ser- 
vice on  the  ground  that  it  is  too  long  a period  to  remain  unin- 
terruptedly on  the  field.  There  are  objections  to  the  long  fur- 
lough on  ground  that  it  di.slocates  the  work,  casts  heavy 
burdens  on  those  who  remain  on  the  field,  and  throws  the  mis- 
sionary wholh’  out  of  touch  with  his  own  responsibilities  and 
with  the  conditions  of  the  work.  There  is  objection  to  the  in- 
termediate furlough  and  the  short  term  of  service  on  the  ground 
that  it  gives  an  advantage  to  tho.se  who  have  money  of  their 
own  and  can  pay  half  the  travel  and  leaves  the  burdens  of  the 
work  on  others  who  cannot  afford  to  do  this;  also  that  it  gets 
people  home  too  often  and  opens  the  risk  of  their  overstaying 
their  time.  It  is  evident  that  there  is  no  plan  that  can  meet  all 
difficulties.  Our  niis.sion  is  agreed,  however,  that  if  Baguio  is 
accessible  to  them  as  an  annual  sanatarium  or  as  an  occasional 
sauatarium  for  those  in  more  distant  stations  who  may  prefer 
ordinarily  to  go  to  some  of  the  nearer  hill  resorts  which  Dr. 
Bovaird  has  described,  a six-year  term  of  .service  is  not  too  long, 
but  that  it  ought  to  be  laid  down  as  a rule  that  every  mission- 
ary should  take  an  annual  vacation  at  one  of  the  available  places. 
The  mission  would  like  to  retain  the  option  of  the  intermediate 
furlough.  And  still  another  option  was  suggested  which  met 
with  the  hearty  approval  of  the  mission,  namely,  that  for  those 
missionaries  who  desired  it,  the  furlough  at  the  end  of  six  years 
should  be  nine  mouths  and  that  there  should  a three-months’  va- 
cation at  Baguio  at  the  end  of  three  years  with  all  traveling 
expenses  paid  by  the  Board.  We  would  recommend  that  this 
option  be  given  in  addition  to  the  option  of  the  intermediate 
furlough. 

Both  vacations  and  furloughs  should  be  wisely  used  and  made 
times  of  real  mental  and  physical  recreation.  The  temptation 
to  spend  the  time  in  mere  unordered  rest  is  very  great.  It  may 
be  desirable  to  spend  some  of  it  so,  but  many  of  our  mission- 
aries would  be  better  off  if  they  submitted  themselves  during 
their  vacations  to  the  rigorous  discipline  of  physical  training 
by  which  tone  and  energy  are  best  restored. 

274 


3.  Cemeteries.  The  question  that  is  involved  and  other  fea- 
tures of  life  in  the  Philippines  can  best  be  indicated  by  a true 
story.  Some  three  years  ago  a Filipino  sergeant  died  at  one  of 
the  army  posts.  The  government  had  his  body  packed  in  saw- 
dust in  a metallic  coflSn  and  put  in  the  government  morgue 
awaiting  word  as  to  his  wife’s  desire  as  to  burial.  She  was 
given  150  pesos,  as  is  customary  in  such  cases,  and  went  off  to 
another  island.  After  a year  she  sent  for  the  coffin  to  be  for- 
warded to  her  for  burial  and  it  was  sent  in  accordance  with 
her  desire.  A year  after,  an  army  officer  in  a post  near  the  vil- 
lage to  which  she  had  gone,  received  word  that  there  was  a 
soldier’s  coffin  in  the  barrio,  and  learning  that  it  was  true,  he 
went  down  with  a detail  in  a wagon  to  learn  why  there  had  been 
no  burial.  He  found  the  house  where  the  woman  was  living  and 
there  was  the  coffin  in  the  living  room  of  the  house.  The  lid  had 
been  unscrewed  to  use  as  a table  and  the  coffin  had  served  as  a 
settee  and  the  bones  were  there  in  the  sawdust.  The  woman 
had  married  again,  had  had  a child,  and  then  her  new  husband 
had  deserted  her.  All  the  time  the  coffin  with  her  first  husband’s 
bones  had  served  as  a u.seful  piece  of  furniture  and  she  enjoyed 
the  comfort  of  his  faithful  corpse  now  that  the  second  man  had 
run  away.  She  was  asked  why  he  had  not  been  buried  and  ex- 
plained that  she  had  spent  the  money  given  her  by  the  govern- 
ment and  had  only  fifteen  pesos  left,  that  that  was  enough  to 
get  the  coffin  into  the  cemetery  controlled  by  the  priests,  but 
not  to  keep  it  there,  and  that  she  was  afraid  to  have  him  buried 
knowing  that  as  soon  as  the  space  was  needed  or  could  be  used 
for  some  one  else,  his  bones  would  be  taken  out  and  thrown  in 
the  common  heap.  She  was  persuaded  to  let  the  officer  take  the 
body  back  with  him  to  the  post  from  which  he  came  on  his 
promise  to  see  that  it  was  buried  and  kept  buried.  She  was  re- 
luctant at  first  to  consent  but  yielded  with  alacrity  when  she 
was  promised  a band,  flowers  and  a chief  place  in  a carriage  at 
the  funeral. 

The  fact  is,  as  has  been  pointed  out  in  one  of  our  report  let- 
ters, that  cemeteries  in  the  Philippines  as  elsewhere  in  Eoman 
Catholic  lands,  have  been  controlled  by  the  church  and  have 
been  used  in  a pecuniary  interest.  This  control  has  made  it 
possible  for  the  priests  to  intimidate  sentiment  by  threatening, 
and  often  by  carrying  out  their  threat,  to  deny  burial  to  the 
dead.  Again  and  again  the  evangelical  churches  spoke  of  this 
control  of  the  cemetery  by  the  Koman  church  as  one  of  the  great, 
difficulties  with  which  they  had  to  contend  and  besought  us  to 
appeal  to  the  government  to  multiply  the  number  of  municipal 
cemeteries,  in  order  that  among  the  sorrows  of  death  at  least 
the  vindictive  shadow  of  the  priest  might  be  withdrawn!.  In 
many  of  the  islands  great  progress  has  been  made  in  the  open- 
ing of  municipal  cemeteries  and  it  will  be  only  a question  of 
time  until  the  real  abuse  which  has  been  complained  of  is 
cleared  away. 


275 


4.  Mr.  Day  is  reporting  fully  in  the  case  of  the  Philippines 
as  of  the  other  missions  with  regard  to  titles  and  conditions  of 
the  Board’s  property  and  the  handling  of  the  accounts  and  busi- 
ness affairs  of  the  mission.  Upon  the  various  needs  of  the  mis- 
sion for  new  property,  some  of  them  urgent,  we  are  prepared 
to  report  as  the  Board  may  be  called  upon  to  deal  with  them. 
The  only  point  to  which  I would  refer  here  is  the  de.sirability 
of  tlie  mission’s  making  sure  of  its  having  Torrence  titles  for 
every  piece  of  mission  property  and  to  the  importance  of  the 
synod’s  giving  attention  to  the  securing  of  proper  title  in  the 
name  of  each  congregation  or  presbyterj’  or  in  the  name  of  the 
synod  itself,  for  the  church  buildings  and.  chapels  built  by  the 
Filipinos. 

E.  E.  S. 


276 


5.  A EEVIEW  OF  MEDICAL  MISSIONS  IN  THE 
PHILIPPINES 


BY  DAVID  BOVAIRD_,  M.D. 

Our  experience  in  these  Islands  comprised  three  days  in  May, 
the  period  the  “Korea,”  on  wliich  we  had  crossed  the  Pacific,  re- 
mained in  Manila,  and  which  Ave  occupied  in  a hurried  trip  to 
Baguio,  the  mountain  resort  on  Luzon,  and  the  five  and  one- 
half  weeks  from  July  20tli  to  September  3rd.  In  the  latter  time 
we  vi.sited  six  of  the  principal  islands,  namely,  Panay,  Negros, 
Cebu,  Bohol,  Le^fie  and  Luzon.  On  the  first  five  of  these  we 
were  obliged  to  confine  our  visit  to  a single  city  or  town  and 
its  immediate  neighborhood,  but  on  Luzon  our  tour  covered 
cities  and  towns  in  a number  of  provinces  as  Avell  as  Manila  and 
its  environ.s.  In  addition  to  this  experience,  Jlr.s.  Bovaird  and 
I made  a special  trip  to  tlie  leper  colony  on  the  island  of  Culion. 
While,  therefore,  in  view  of  the  limitation  of  time  our  tour  cov- 
ered a considerable  part  of  the  archipelago,  we  were  forced  t6 
confine  our  attention  for  the  most  part  to  the  points  where  our 
mission  stations  are  located,  and  .some  of  tlie  largest  islands, 
sucli  as  Pahnvan,  ^lindanao,  ^lindoro,  and  Samar  were  not  in- 
cluded within  our  puniew.  Indeed  as  tliere  are  said  to  be  over 
3,000  islands  all  told  within  the  limits  of  the  archipelago  we 
can  claim  to  have  seen-  only  a few'  of  the  largest  and  most  popu- 
lous. Furthermore,  as  all  our  stations  from  Dumaguete  on 
the  soutli  to  ^lanila  on  tlie  nortli,  lie  between  the  0th  and  lOth  par- 
allels of  north  latitude,  and  are  all  practically  at  sea  level,  the 
climatic  conditions,  except  as  regards  Avinds  and  the  amount 
and  distribution  of  tlie  rainfa.il,  varv'  comparatively  little. 
Baguio,  of  course,  is  not  included  in  this  statement  and  the 
conditions  of  that  mountain  resort  w'ill  he  dealt  Avith  later. 
MJien  Ave  visited  IManila  in  the  early  part  of  May  tliey  had  ju.st 
experienced  an  unusual  period  of  a'ctw  diw  and  hot  w'eather, 
culminating  in  wdiat  Ave  were  assured  w'as-one  of  the  hottest 
days  they  had  ever  knoAvn,  and  we  liad  an  excellent  opportunity 
to  realize  what  a tropical  climate  may  lie  like.  In  the  tw'o  days 
AA'e  AA'ere  in  tliat  ciW  we  SAveltered  and  suffered  quite  sufficiently 
to  understand  hoAV  tiwing  long  residence  under  such  conditions 
may  become.  On  our  return  in  late  July  the  rains  had  begun  to 
fall  and  the  temperature  Avas  considerably  moderated.  Even 
then  fhe  thernioineter  registered  constantly  betAveen  84  degrees 
and  00  degrees,  and  the  slightest  exertion  w'as  sure  to  bring  out 
a profuse  persj)iration.  Not  until  Ave  AA'ere  nearing  Nagasaki 
on  our  voyage  from  Manila  to  that  port  did  we  experience  any 
real  relief  from  the  tropical  conditions.  It  is  of  course  true  that 
the  temperatures  I'ecorded  in  the  parts  of  the  tropics  we  visited 

277 


are  sometimes  equaled  during  a summer  in  New  York  and  may 
even  be  exceeded  in  other  parts  of  the  United  States.  On  the 
whole  we  wore  surjiri.sed  at  the  moderation  of  the  thermometer 
in  regions  so  little  north  of  the  equator.  We  had  anticipated 
much  severer  conditions  than  we  actually  met.  It  is  not  the  ex- 
cessive heat  of  any  one  day  that  makes  the  climate  compara- 
tively severe  on  our  people,  hut  rather  the  fact  that  from  one 
year’s  end  to  another  there  is  no  substantial  relief  or  change 
from  the  torrid  conditions.  In  New  York  or  other  parts  of  the 
States  we  can  endure  a few  days  or  even  weeks  of  great  heat  in 
the  assurance  that  before  long  a change  will  come,  and  we  .shall 
ultimately  enjoy  the  invigorating  cold  of  fall  and  winter.  The 
dweller  in  the  tropics  must  endure  much  the  same  conditions 
throughout  the  year,  the,  partial  relief  from  heat  during  the 
wet  season  being  counterbalanced  by  the  greatly  increased  hu- 
midity and  high  winds  of  that  period.  A typhoon  which  greet- 
ed us  upon  our  arrival  at  Iloilo  and  continued  for  nearly  a week, 
taught  us  that  there  are  other  conditions  than  excessive  heat 
which  are  very  trying  to  those  unaccustomed  to  them.  The  fact 
I’emains  that  experience  has  proven  that  with  a few  .simple  pre- 
cautions Americans  can  live  in  the  Philippines  not  only  in  health 
but  in  comparative  vigor.  The  experience  of  our  own  mission 
seems  to  demonstrate  the  fact.  In  the  10  years  since  our  first 
representatives  reached  the  I.slands,  but  one  missionary  has  died 
on  the  field,  and  there  have  been  relatively  few  resignations  on 
account  of  illness.  The  men  of  the  mission,  when  a.ssembled  for 
the  annual  conference  in  Manila,  proved  to  be  quite  as  vigorous 
as  any  equal  number  of  men  engaged  in  the  same  lines  of  work 
that  one  is  likely  to  find  at  home.  In  making  any  such  compari- 
son we  must,  however,  bear  in  mind  that  all  appointed  mission- 
aries are  very  carefully  selected  “risks.”  The  experience  of  the 
TTnited  States  army  in  the  Philippines  also  bears  out  the  opinion 
that  for  vigorous  men  the  climate  has  no  special  terrors.  We 
met  at  least  one  officer  who  had  asked  for  assignment  to  the 
Islands  as  a relief  from  the  hardships  of  army  life  in  Texas.  In 
connection  with  the  army  experience  it  is  interesting  to  note 
that  neither  officers  nor  men  wear  the  sun  helmet.  After  thor- 
ough study  of  the  conditions  and  various  experiments  a simple 
broad-brimmed  felt  hat  with  a ventilated  hat-band  has  been 
foTind  to  meet  all  the  requirements.  The  following  paragraph  is 
from  the  Keport  of  the  Bureau  of  Health,  December  31,  1913: 

“the  helmet  and  the  campaign*  hat 

“The  helmet  in  the  Philippine  Islands  is  being  rapidly  replaced 
by  the  lighter  and  much  more  practical  hat  with  a ventilated 
hat-band.  The  experiments  made  by  the  Army  Board  for  the 
Study  of  Tropical  Diseases  showed  rather  conclusively  that  the 
helmet,  at  least  in  the  Philippines,  offers  no  advantage  over  a 
hat  which  is  properly  ventilated.  Briefly,  the  advantage  which 
the  helmet  was  supposed  to  possess  over  a hat  came  from  the 

278 


fact  that  placing  the  hat-hand  a quarter  of  an  inch  or  more 
from  the  inner  side  of  the  hat  permitted  the  free  circulation  of 
air  about  the  head.  As  this  form  of  hatband  can  be  inserted 
equally  well  in  a hat,  it  is  not  necessary  to  carry  around  the 
heavier,  and  to  many  people  the  unpleasantly  stiff  and  unyield- 
ing, helmet.  The  United  States  troops  have  again  returned  to 
the  use  of  the  campaign  hat,  which  is  a felt  hat  with  a broad 
brim  and  ventilated  hat-band,  and  so  far  no  bad  effects  have 
been  noticed.” 

This  observation  is  not  made  with  any  intention  of  making 
light  of  the  effects  of  the  tropic  sun.  To  those  unaccustomed  to 
it  and  e.specially  to  any  predisposed  to  headaches,  exposure  to 
the  direct  rays  of  the  tropic  sun  may  be  decidedly  harmful  and 
our  missionaries,  both  men  and  women,  have  wisely  adopted 
the  helmet  for  regular  use.  That  practice  should  tindoubtedly 
be  continued,  but  I have  been  impressed  with  the  fact  that  in 
some  quarters  the  tropic  sun  has  been  credited  with  most  uncanny 
powers  of  doing  harm  to  the  unsuspecting.  Thus  we  were  told 
of  instances  in  which  momentary  exposure  to  the  direct  rays 
of  the  sun  had  resulted  in  persistent  headaches  and  conseqiient 
invalidism  and  in  some  places  it  is  regaixled  as  perilous  even  to 
step  for  a moment  into  the  sunshine  without  the  protection  of 
the  sunliat.  It  is  wise  to  be  regardful  of  the  influence  of  the 
sun’s  heat,  but  it  is  not  well  to  exaggerate  dangers  or  to  credit 
with  mysterious  powers  of  harm  the  familiar  agencies  of  nature. 

On  the  other  hand,  T am  inclined  to  the  opinion  that  we  may 
have  paid  too  little  attention  to  the  influence  of  the  intense 
tropical  light.  Not  that  T would  adopt  the  well-knovm  radical 
views  which  Col.  Woodruff  has  advocated  in  this  relation,  but 
there  seems  no  doubt  that  just  as  the  central  nervous  system  of 
.some  individuals  is  undoubtedly  hypersensitive  to  the  sun’s  heat, 
so  that  of  others  reacts  powerfully  to  the  sun’s  light.  To  these 
protection  from  the  light  by  the  u.se  of  smoked  or  tinted  glasses 
may  be  quite  as  valuable  as  the  use  of  the  sunhat.  This  is  of 
special  importance  in  regions  such  as  the  environs  of  Tagbilaran 
when  the  roads  are  made  of  an  almost  white  material  and  the 
consequent  glare  at  noonday  is  almost  unbearable.  We  must 
in  these  regards  recognize  the  fact  that  individual  susceptibili- 
ties vary  greatly.  The  exceptional  individual  may  be  quite  in- 
different to  either  tropic  light  or  heat.  Another  per.son  may 
suffer  keenly  from  one  and  not  at  all  from  the  other.  The  wise 
man,  until  he  is  thoroughly  acclimated,  will  guard  himself  care- 
fully from  both. 

So  far  as  danger  from  the  pestilences  formerly  peculiar  to 
these  tropic  islands  is  concerned,  the  work  of  the  Bureau  of 
TTealth  since  our  occupation  of  the  Islands  has  completely  revo- 
lutionized the  situation.  Small-pox,  fonnerly  so  common  that 
the  Filipinos  regarded  it  as  one  of  the  unavoidable  perils  of 
life  and  even  inoculated  their  children  directly  with  the  virus  in 
order  to  have  the  experience  over  until  such  practice  was  rigidly 

279 


forbidden  by  the  health  authorities,  has  been  practically  stamped 
out.  Cholera  has  been  brought  under  control  so  that  when  an 
outbreak  occurs,  as  happened  only  a year  ago  (1914)  it  is  com- 
paratively limited  and  quickly  subdued  by  proper  measures. 
Plague  has  likewise  been  kept  under  complete  control.  No  cases 
of  either  human  or  rat  plague  have  been  reported  in  the  Islands 
since  September,  1914.  Dysentery  has  likewise  been  enormously 
reduced  by  the  introduction  of  pure  water  and  the  general  adop- 
tion of  the  practice  of  boiling  drinking  water.  The  same  meas- 
ures serve  to  control  typhoid  fever,  although  it  is  interesting 
to  learn  that  this  disease  appears  never  to  have  had  in  the  tropics 
the  epidemic  prevalence  which  one  would  expect  from  the  ignor- 
■ance  and  disregard  of  all  hygienic  practices.  Neverthele.ss  ty- 
phoid fever  is  not  by  any  means  unknown  in  the  tropics.  It 
occurs  constantly  in  all  parts  in  sporadic  form  especially  among 
white  people.  Undoubtedly  it  is  often  overlooked  by  reason  of 
the  universal  prevalence  of  malarial  fever  of  continu^  type,  and 
undoubtedly  al.so  its  presence  will  be  recognized  ju.st  in  propor- 
tion as  the  known  tests  of  the  blood  and  serum  for  the  demon- 
stration of  the  malarial  parasites  and  the  typhoid  organisms  are 
employed.  It  is  well  to  keep  these  facts  in  mind  with  relation 
to  our  work,  Jor  typhoid  in  the  tropics  is  certainly  much  more 
common  among  whites  than  in  the  native  races,  and  is  also  much 
more  deadly  to  the  former.  Fortunately  the  value  of  the  anti- 
typhoid inoculations  seems  to  be  established  beyond  question 
and  the  policy  of  requiring  all  appointees  to  undergo  the  inocu- 
lation before  entering  upon  their  service  in  these  lands  should 
unquestionably  be  continued. 

Beriberi,  so  common  a scourge  among  the  natives  of  the 
tropics  by  reason  of  their  almo.st  exclusive  rice  diet,  is  practical- 
ly unknown  among  Americans  and  Europeans. 

Sprue,  on  the  contraiw.  appears  to  be  a disease  almost  entirely 
confined  to  the  whites.  Tnve.stigation  in  relation  to  its  frequency 
in  Manila  disclosed  the  fact  that  it  is  much  more  common  than 
is  usually  known.  Fortunately  we  have  thus  far  had  compara- 
tively little  experience  with  it.  although  it  was  the  cause  of  the 
invalidism  of  both  the  Bev.  .1.  B.  Cochran,  of  China,  and  his 
cousin.  Dr.  Eobert  Carter,  of  the  Philippines.  The  etiology  of 
this  affection  is  however  practically  unknown  and  there  are  no 
effective  measures  of  prevention. 

With  relation  to  malaria  a great  deal  has  been  done  in  the 
city  of  Manila  by  filling  in  the  ancient  moat,  building  sewers, 
draining  marshes,  and  spraying  such  pools  as  remain  with  pe- 
troleum, to  reduce  the  number  of  mosquitoes  and  thus  lessen  the 
dangers  of  transmission,  but  even  with  all  these  efforts  the 
troublesome  insects  still  abound.  The  frequent  ti’opic  rains  ren- 
der the  work  of  eliminating  breeding  places  extremely  diflScult. 
Outside  Manila  and  in  the  islands  at  large  although  some  pro- 
gress has  been  made  along  the  lines  of  improved  drainage,  but 
little  impression  has  been  made  upon  the  hordes  of  mosquitoes. 

280 


For  protection  one  must  therefore  rely  mainly  upon  the  screen- 
ing of  houses  or  sleeping  rooms  and  the  constant  use  of  netting 
over  the  beds.  While  there  is  constant  danger  of  infection  our 
people  on  the  whole  seem  to  suffer  comparatively  little  from  mal- 
arial fevers. 

The  following  quotation  from  the  latest  (1914)  report  of  the 
Bureau  of  Health  illustrates  the  scope  and  results  of  the  com- 
prehensive work  done  by  its  oflScers: — 

“During  the  year  the  best  efforts  of  the  Bureau  were  concen- 
trated upon  holding  the  ground  that  had  already  been  gained. 
This  was  especially  difficult  in  the  provinces,  owing  to  the  scarc- 
ity of  funds  and  to  the  lack  of  adequate  legislation.  The  im- 
provements that  might  be  hoped  for  in  this  connection  were 
well  exemplified  in  the  Province  of  Cebu,  where  there  was  a rea- 
sonable amount  of  funds  available  and  effective  legislation  that 
happened  to  meet  the  conditions.  The  district  health  officer 
reports  that  arte.sian  wells  and  reservoirs  have  largely  replaced 
the  insanitary  wells ; vaccination  of  all  the  inhabitants  is  near- 
ing completion ; a threatened  invasion  of  cholera  was  success- 
fully repelled ; the  campaign  against  soil  pollution  made  good 
progress;  persons  with  curable  maladies  were  transferred  from 
all  parts  of  the  province  to  the  Southern  Islands  Hospital,  suc- 
cessfully treated,  and  returned  to  their  homes;  all  known  lepers 
have  been  isolated ; trachoma  examinations  have  been  made  in 
the  schools;  and  in  general  modern  health  measures  have  been 
very  succe.s.sfully  carried  out,  with  the  result  that  the  province 
now  enjoA’s  a death  rate  well  below  16  per  1,000.  This  again 
makes  concrete  proof  that  if  facilities  well  within  the  ability  of 
the  community  to  grant  are  placed  in  the  hands  of  competent 
health  officer.s,  most  profitable  re.sults  can  be  confidently  counted 
upon. 

“The  death  rate  for  the  city  of  Manila  during  the  month  of 
June  reached  17.0.5  per  1,000  per  annum,  which  is  the  lowest 
point  which  has  been  reached  since  American  occupation.  Owing 
to  the  appearance  of  cholera  in  tlie  cit}-,  the  result  of  the  second 
half  of  the  year  was  an  increa.se  in  the  death  rate,  so  that  the 
average  for  the  year  was  24.67  per  1,000  as  compared  with  24.98 
for  last  year.” 

So  far  as  tlie  control  of  preventable  disease  is  concerned  the 
activities  of  the  Bureau  of  Health  con.stitute  one  of  the  most 
striking  of  tlie  ble.ssings  conferred  upon  the  Islands  by  the 
agency  of  the  U.  S.  Government.  Occasion  will  later  be  taken 
to  speak  ot  the  Culion  leiier  colony.  At  this  point  I may  say 
that  one  of  the  deeji  disa])i)ointments  of  the  trip  came  to  me  on 
my  visit  to  the  great  San  Lazaro  Hospital  of  Manila,  the  recep- 
tion hospital  for  all  ca.ses  of  contagious  di.sease  from  Manila  and 
the  surrounding  eountiy.  In.stead  of  the  rich  collection  of 
cases  illustrating  forcibly  the  perils  of  the  tropics  which  I had 
expected,  they  had  a few  lepers,  two  or  three  diphtheria  sus- 
pects, and  nothing  more.  Not  a patient  in  bed!  While  that 

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happy  condition  does  not  prevail  all  the  year  round  its  occur- 
rence at  the  time  of  my  visit  constituted  the  most  emphatic 
testimony  possible  to  the  efficiency  of  the  work  of  the  health 
authorities. 

Altogether,  as  has  already  been  observed,  vigorous  men  with 
the  observance  of  simple  precautions  can  preserve  their  health, 
if  not  their  full  vigor,  in  the  Philippine  Islands,  almost  as  well 
as  at  home. 

Climatic  conditions  tell  much  more  heavily  upon  the  women 
and  children.  More  care  should  therefore  be  given  to  the  selec- 
tion of  women  destined  for  work  in  the  tropics,  especially  with 
relation  to  any  of  the.  disturbances  peculiar  to  women,  as  ex- 
perience has  abundantly  proven  that  any  defect  of  that  charac- 
ter will  become  a matter  of  prime  importance  in  the  tropics.  In 
the  mission  meeting  occasion  was  also  taken  to  point  out  that 
in  the  interests  of  tlie  work  as  a whole  it  is  highly  desirable 
that  in  the  planning  and  arrangement  of  vacation  re.sorts  the 
needs  of  the  women  and  children  should  have  particular  atten- 
tion, as  they  are  most  likely  to  suffer  from  the  climate  and  con- 
ditions of  living  and  the  illness  of  wife  or  child  may  be  the  cau.se 
of  the  withdrawal  of  a whole  family  from  mission  .service. 

Manila  was  the  last  place  in  the  islands  to  be  visited,  but  in- 
a.smuch  as  the  conditions  relating  to  medical  work  there  are  of 
prime  importance  in  understanding  the  problems  of  our  medical 
undertakings  in  various  parts  of  the  archipelago  they  will  be 
presented  first. 

In  this  connection  the  outstanding  fact  is  the  existence  of  the 
Philippine  General  Ho.spital  and  Medical  School,  as  part  of  the 
University  of  the  Philippine.s.  The  Philippine  Medical  School 
was  establi.shed  by  the  Philippine  Commission  as  the  first  de- 
partment of  the  future  University  of  the  Philippines  and  was 
opened  for  the  instruction  of  students  June  10,  1907.  A medical 
school  building  for  laboratories  and  class  rooms,  of  reinforced 
concrete  construction,  was  erected  and  opened  for  use  in  July, 
1910,  at  a cost  of  approximately  -?170,000  gold.  The  Philippine 
General  Hospital,  a modem  ho.spital  building,  also  of  reinforced 
concrete  construction,  of  350  beds,  was  completed  and  opened 
to  the  public  in  September,  1910,  the  cost  amounting  to  approxi- 
mately $700,000  gold. 

The  scope  of  the  plans  may  be  judged  from  the  fact  that  they 
contemplate  the  extension  of  the  capacity  of  the  ho.spital  to 
1,500  beds.  A large  out-patient  department  is  a conspicuous 
part  of  the  hospital  equipment. 

Adjoining  the  hospital  and  medical  school  stands  the  already 
famous  Bureau  of  Science  of  the  Philippines,  in  which  there 
are  extensive  chemical  and  bacteriological  laboratories,  and  a 
large  medical  library.  In  this  institution  within  the  past  ten 
years  a large  amount  of  excellent  scientific  work  has  been  done 
and  some  important  discoveries  have  been  made.  Just  at  present 
the  work  of  the  bureau  has  been  seriously  disturbed  by  the 

282 


withdrawal  of  a number  of  men  of  high  scientific  attainments, 
whose  work  had  been  largely  instrumental  in  establishing  the 
repute  of  the  bureau.  It  is  greatly  to  be  hoped  that  the  way  may 
be  found  to  continue  the  work  of  the  bureau  on  the  high  level  on 
which  it  has  heretofore  been  conducted. 

Although  not  an  inherent  part  of  the  university  or  medical 
school,  but  an  independent  bureau  under  the  insular  govern- 
ment, many  of  the  chemical  and  bacteriological  problems  studied 
in  its  laboratories  either  originated  in  the  hospital  or  are  so 
closely  related  to  medical  science  as  to  make  the  presence  of 
the  bureau  in  immediate  association  with  the  medical  school 
and  hospital  an  ideal  arrangement.  The  presence  of  this  Bureau 
of  Science  has  not  only  been  a help  to  both  school  and  hospital, 
but  the  excellent  work  done  in  its  laboratories  has  undoubtedly 
been  a constant  inspiration  to  both  faculty  and  students  of  the 
medical  school. 

One  finds  it  difficult  to  express  in  moderate  language  his  ad- 
miration of  these  medical  in.stitutions  developed  under  the  lead- 
ership of  our  government  officials  during  the  past  decade.  The 
officers  of  the  commission  were  fortunate  in  having  practically 
a free  hand  in  planning,  building  and  manning  the  ho.spital  and 
school,  and  they  have  undoubtedly  used  their  opportunity  to 
full  advantage.  The  hospital  is  admirably  constructed  in  every 
way.  Taken  all  in  all,  it  is  better  planned  and  more  complete 
than  any  that  I ever  visited  in  the  United  State-s,  having  even 
a well-equipped  and  active  dental  department. 

The  medical  school  building  is  ([uite  in  keeping  with  the  hos- 
pital. A unique  feature  and  one  that  would  excite  the  envy  of 
any  of  our  schools  is  that  the  city  morgue  is  part  of  the  insti- 
tution and  the  superintendent  of  the  school  building  is  also  su- 
perintendent of  the  morgue!  By  this  simple  arrangement  the 
problems  of  anatomical  material  and  autopsies,  problems  which 
still  continue  to  vex  our  home  institutions  beyond  measure,  are 
solved  in  the  most  satisfactory  manner  ])Ossible. 

The  faculty  of  the  medical  school  consists  of  11  professors;, 
7 of  whom  are  Americans,  fi  associate  and  0 assistant  professors, 
13  instructors,  a considerable  number  of  special  lecturers  from 
the  Bureau  of  Health,  and  a number  of  assistants.  Dr.  Wm.  E. 
Musgrave  is  dean  of  the  medical  school  and  director  of  the  hos- 
pital. The  .school  is  now  placed  in  Class  A by  the  American 
Medical  Association,  which  means  that  it  meets  all  the  require- 
ments laid  down  for  a thoroughly  efficient  .school  in  the  United 
States,  and  Dr.  Musgrave  declares  it  to  be  his  purpose  to  keep 
it  in  that  class  ju.st  as  long  as  he  remains  dean. 

The  I’hilippine  Islands  now  for  the  first  time  have  an  insti- 
tution cai)able  of  giving  a thorough  education  in  medicine  and 
STirgeiy.  Thus  far  there  has  been  no  effort  to  attract  large  num- 
bers of  students.  In  1)  years  but  05  men  have  been  graduated 
from  the  institution.  And  although  the  I.slands  unquestionably 
need  physicians  (in  1905  it  was  estimated  that  there  was  but 

283 


one  physician  to  21,000  of  population)  the  insular  and  university 
authorities  are  determined  that  the  need  shall  not  be  met  by 
incompetent  or  untrained  men.  The  requirements  for  admission 
to  practice  as  well  as  the  standards  of  the  medical  school  are 
both  kept  high.  The  classes  in  the  medical  school  are  gradually 
increasing  in  size  and  if  present  policies  are  maintained  the 
school  will  doubtless  soon  be  turning  out  well  trained  men  as 
rapidly  as  the  situation  requires. 

The  Philippine  General  Hospital  has  a training  school  for 
nurses,  which  under  the  leadership  of  an  American  woman  of 
ability  has  been  turning  out  excellent  nurses.  Ju.st  before  our 
arrival  in  Manila  the  superintendent  was  obliged  to  return  to 
the  States  because  of  nervous  exhaustion  and  considerable  dif- 
ficulty was  being  experienced  in  filling  her  place.  It  is  greatly 
to  be  hoped  that  a worthy  successor  may  be  found  and  the  work 
of  the  school  continued  in  a satisfactory  manner. 

The  Filipino  nurses,  while  doing  excellent  work  both  in  hos- 
pital and  private  practice,  have  not  been  found  to  bear  heavy 
responsibilities  well  or  to  be  cai)able  of  properly  filling  such 
positions  as  this.  Nor  is  this  to  be  wondered  at.  Out  of  the 
hundreds  of  nurses  annually  graduated  in  the  United  States 
very  few  indeed  prove  themselves  leaders  and  a still  smaller 
number  become  succe.ssful  superintendents.  In  time  the  Filipino 
women  Avill  doubtless  develop  the  ability  to  fill  all  .such  positions, 
but  for  the  present  they  need  and  should  have  the  guidance  of 
some  of  the  be/>t  graduates  of  our  own  training  .schools. 

The  other  medical  schools  in  Manila  (there  are  none  else- 
where in  the  Islands)  scarcely  require  mention.  The  University 
of  St.  Tomas,  a survival  of  the  ancient  regime,  still  exists  and 
has  a few  students,  but  is  entirely  negligible.  Within  the  past 
year  a new  school  has  been  launched,  under  the  title  of  the 
Ateneo  Eizal,  with  its  center  of  activity  about  the  Christian 
Hospital.  At  present  its  promoters  have  no  adequate  equipment 
for  the  work  they  are  undertaking,  and  it  is  difficult  to  see  where 
they  are  to  obtain  it.  The  Mary  Chiles  Christian  Hospital,  of 
which  the  dean  of  the  new  school  is  head,  is  an  insufficiently 
equipped  mission  hospital  of  45  be<ls,  whose  building  and  equip- 
ment cost  iSlo.OOO  gold.  The  hospital  has  a training  school  for 
both  men  and  women  niirses.  The  mission  physician  in  charge 
of  the  hospital  is  also  dii’ector  of  this  training  school. 

We  risited  a number  of  other  hospitals  in  Manila  but  for  our 
purposes  it  will  be  necessary  to  speak  only  of  the  mission  hos- 
pitals, St.  Luke’s  (P.  E.)  and  the  Mary  Johnston  Hospital 
(Methodist). 

St.  Luke’s,  as  compared  with  the  Great  Philippine  G-eneral, 
is  a small  institution  of  40  to  50  beds,  about  half  of  them  for  pri- 
vate patients.  It  is  well  equipped  and  efficiently  conducted  un- 
der the  superintendency  of  an  American  trained  nurse  of  abil- 
ity. Many  physicians  and  patients  find  it  more  satisfactory 
than  the  larger  institution  and  its  future  seems  assured. 

2S4 


The  Maiy  Johnston  is  a hospital  for  women  and  children  con- 
ducted by  two  women  physicians  and  is  evidently  doing  good 
work.  The  out-patient  department  is  especially  equipped  to 
provide  food  for  infants.  The  in-patients  are  chiefly  obstetric 
cases.  Throughout  the  institution  one  got  the  impression  of 
active  work  and  good  management.  On  inquiry  in  these  mission 
hospitals  we  learned  that  none  of  them  is  self-supporting.  Each 
of  them  receives  substantial  annual  contributions  from  some 
home  source,  sometimes  as  much  as  |5,000  in  a year,  usually  less 
than  that  amount. 

Tn  addition  to  these  institutions  the  Catholic  Church  conducts 
a large  private  hospital  (St.  Paul’s)  and  a general  hospital  (San 
Juan  de  Dios)  where  the  teaching  of  the  .<4tudents  of  the  Uni- 
versity of  St.  Tomas  is  done. 

Manila  has  therefore  abundance  of  hospitals  and  in  the  School 
of  Medicine  and  Surgery  of  tlie  University  possesses  an  institu- 
tion capable  of  meeting  in  time  the  needs  of  the  Islands  for 
trained  native  practitioners. 

At  Iloilo,  on  the  island  of  Panay,  one  of  the  chief  ports  of  the 
Islands  and  the  first  stopping  point  for  the  Spanish  Mail,  on 
which  we  came  from  Singapore  to  the  Islands,  we  have  a Union 
Hospital,  a joint  undertaking  of  the  Haptist  and  Pre.sbyterian 
Hoards.  The  hospital  has  been  developed  by  and  is  now  in 
charge  of  Dr.  J.  Andrew  Hall  of  our  own  Board.  The  buildings 
have  been  constructed  as  time  and  funds  permitted,  till  the 
wards  now  have  a capacity  of  4.’)  beds.  The  Dunwoodie  annex, 
the  result  of  a gift  from  Mrs.  Dunwoodie,  of  Minneapolis,  is  a 
substantial  concrete  structure  of  two  stories,  a ward  on  the 
first  floor  and  private  rooms  above.  The  remainder  of  the  build- 
ings are  of  wood,  and  present  the  defects  of  any  in.stitution 
built  up  bit  by  bit.  Besides  the  Avards  there  is  a main  building 
which  contains  on  the  first  floor  the  out-patient  department  or 
dispensary,  a phannacy,  and  the  hospital  reception  room  and 
office,  on  the  upper  floor  the  nurses  quarters.  The  dispensary, 
I am  glad  to  .say,  is  conducted  just  as  it  Avonld  be  at  home,  the 
doctor  regularly  spending  the  greater  part  of  .the  morning  in  re- 
ceiving. examining  and  prescribing  for  the  patients.  Across  the 
street  from  the  ho.spifal.  which  enjoys  a site  close  to  the  center 
of  the  city,  the  hospital  already  owns  a considerable  plot  of 
ground  on  which  it  is  hopcMl  to  soon  build  a nurses’  home.  Be- 
hind the  hospital  there  has  also  been  accpiired  .some  additional 
ground,  on  part  of  which  a new  laundrv  is  to  be  constructed  to 
replace  a ven-  primitive  equiinnent  now  used  for  that  purpose. 

Within  the  hospital  there  is  a sTiiall  laboratory  where  the 
simpler  laboratory  procedures  are  carried  out  by  a Filipino 
assistant  whom  Dr.  Hall  has  himself  trained  and  where  Dr. 
Hall  himself  does  such  work  as  he  can  find  time  for. 

The  hospital  is  well  organize<l  and  fairlv  well  equipped.  In 
all  its  workings  it  bears  evidence  of  Dr.  Hall’s  unu.sual  abili- 
ties. The  doctor  appreciates  as  thoroughly  as  anyone  its  de- 

285 


ficiences  and  has  already  planne<l  a campaign  to  cover  the  island 
of  Panay  and  the  adjacent  territory  of  Occidental  Negros, 
from  which  many  of  his  patients  have  come,  to  raise  a sufficient 
sum  ('.|!f)0,000)  to  build  the  Nurses  Home,  office  and  out-patient 
building  and  steam  laundrv’.  He  has  no  doubt  of  his  ability  to 
get  the  needed  funds,  if  he  can  find  time  to  make  a proper  can- 
vass of  his  territorA'.  That  he  cannot  do  till  some  one  is  sent  by 
the  Baptist  Board  to  take  the  place  of  their  representative.  Dr. 
Thomas,  who  returned  home  some  time  ago.  Dr.  Hall  is  also 
keeping  in  touch  with  the  officers  of  Silliman  Institute  that  his 
canvas  for  funds  for  the  hospital  shall  in  no  way  conflict  with 
that  for  the  development  of  the  Institute. 

This  Union  Ho.spital  enjoys  the  distinction  of  having  opened 
the  fir.st  training  school  for  nurses  on  the  Philippine  Islands. 
Great  difficulty  was  experienced  in  the  early  days  in  getting 
young  women,  of  suitable  education  and  character  to  undertake 
this  work,  but  after  some  trying  years  the  school  is  now  well 
established  and  has  in  all  about  20  promi.sing  pupils  in  training 
at  the  present  time. 

This  Union  Hospital  should  receive  the  enthu.siastic  support 
of  both  the  Boards  interested  in  it.  It  is  doing  excellent  work 
in  a thorough,  scientific,  manner.  In  1913  (the  last  report  avail- 
able) 4,000  patients  were  treated  in  the  hospital  and  dispensary. 
Its  work  is  known  far  and  wide  through  the  I.slands  and  has 
made  a deep  impression  upon  the  people  of  Panay  and  Occi- 
dental Negros.  They  have  already  testified  their  appreciation 
of  the  work  by  substantial  contributions  and  Dr.  Hall  has  no 
doubt  that  the  !?60,000  he  now  asks  will  l>e  obtained  from  them. 
With  a little  aid  it  would  seem  quite  possible  to  make  the  Union 
Hospital  of  Iloilo  one  of  the  outstanding  features  of  missionary 
effort  in  the  Islands.  To  this  end  both  boards  should  do  their 
full  parts.  We  should  promptly  send  another  nurse  to  Miss 
Benedict’s  aid  and  the  Baptist  Board  should  even  more  promptly 
send  another  physician.  Both  nurse  and  doctor  are  greatly 
needed  in  the  work.  Certainly  Dr.  Hall  cannot  attempt  the 
financial  campaigp  he  plans  till  he  has  .some  one  to  take  over 
the  hospital  service. 

The  capacity  of  the  hospital  should  be  increased  to  perhaps 
sixty  beds.  Such  an  institution  with  an  active  out-patient  de- 
partment will  as.suredly  furnish  all  the  work  that  two  physicians 
can  attend  to.  It  will  be  important  to  develop  the  laboratory 
facilities  of  the  hospital  to  make  the  work  as  thoroughly  scien- 
tific as  possible.  That  part  of  the  work  would  naturally  fall 
to  the  junior  physician  and  would  occupy  all  the  time  he  could 
give  to  it.  Dr.  Hall  is  already  looking  forward  to  the  day  when 
he  will  have  the  aid  of  one  of  his  own  Filipino  boys  who  is  now 
aboTit  to  enter  the  medical  school  of  the  University  of  the  Phil- 
ippines. Unfortunately  at  least  five  years  must  elapse  before 
that  dream  can  come  true. 

The  Catholic  authorities  of  Iloilo  are  preparing  to  build  a 

286 


new  hospital  at  an  estimated  cost  of  f 170, 000,  whose  wards  and 
rooms  are  to  be  open  for  the  use  of  all  the  physicians  of  the 
city.  Doubtless  the  competition  of  such  an  institution  will  be 
felt,  for  a time  at  least,  but  the  Union  Hospital  is  so  well  estab- 
lished and  Dr.  Hall  has  so  firm  a hold  in  the  community  that 
we  need  have  no  fears  of  permanent  impairment  of  the  work. 
In  all  probability  as  the  people  of  the  city  and  the  surrounding 
country  become  familiar  with  the  advantages  of  hospital  care 
they  will  use  to  the  full  all  the  facilities  offered  them. 

At  Dumaguete,  our  next  stop,  we  found  Dr.  Langheim  in 
charge  of  the  small  hospital  adjoining  Silliman  Institute.  The 
hospital,  though  a small  one,  having  only  ahoiit  a dozen  beds, 
was  attractively  furnished  and  very  well  conducted.  The  head 
nurse  was  a young  Filipino  woman,  a native  of  Dumaguete,  who 
had  graduated  from  the  Training  School  of  the  Philippine  Gen- 
eral Hospital  and  has  proven  a very  efficient  helper  in  the  hos- 
pital work.  Dr.  Langheim  was  busily  engaged  in  superintend- 
ing the  erection  of  a new  hospital,  of  reinforced  concrete  con- 
struction, to  accommodate  40  patients,  the  funds  for  which  had 
been  obtained  in  part  on  the  field.  The  walls  were  already  up 
and  they  were  preparing  to  put  on  the  corrugated  iron  roof 
hut  were  delayed  hecau.se  some  of  the  iron  delivered  did  not  con- 
fonn  to  the  .specifications.  The  building  should,  however,  soon 
he  completed  and  in  service.  It  will  give  the  doctor  all  that 
he  could  ask  as  a field  for  his  best  efforts.  With  a school  of  700 
to  800  hoys  to  care  for  as  well  as  the  people  of  Dumaguete  and 
the  surrounding  regions  there  should  be  ample  use  for  the  new 
accommodations.  With  over  700  boys  coming  not  only  from 
Dumaguete  and  its  en\irons  hut  some  of  them  from  remote  parts 
of  the  Islands  in  Silliman  Institute  the  presence  of  an  excellent 
hospital  in  charge  of  a physician  of  ability  and  with  well-trained 
nurses  is  not  only  a valuable  as.sot  of  the  institution  but  offers 
great  oj)portunities  for  the  best  of  riiri.stian  service.  The  limits 
of  its  activities  will  be  as  wide  as  those  of  the  school  and  the 
quality  of  the  work  done  in  it  will  make  a lasting  impression 
upon  the  minds  of  the  students  who  may  require  its  care.  Ap- 
parently the  ho.spital  work  in  this  center  has  been  over.shadowed 
by  the  maiwelous  gi-owth  of  the  Institute.  It  has  also  been 
hampere<l  up  to  the  present  by  very  limited  facilities.  With 
the  new  institution,  so  situated  as  to  be  readily  accessible  to  all 
the  people  of  the  town,  we  -may  look  for  definite  extension  of 
its  influence  upon  the  ))eople  of  Dumaguete  and  the  surrounding 
countrj'. 

A matter  of  pressing  importance  to  the  ho.spital  and  Dr.  Lang- 
heim personally  is  that  of  i)roviding  a substitute  for  him  at  the 
time  of  his  furlough,  due  next  summer.  With  the  needs  of  the 
school  is  mind  it  is  out  of  the  question  to  close  the  hospital.  A 
substitute  should  be  provided  at  the  earliest  possible  moment 
and  should  be  on  the  ground  long  enough  to  permit  him  some 
acquaintance  with  the  work  before  he  is  called  upon  to  assume 

287 


the  responsibilities  of  its  conduct.  It  is  the  same  problem  in  all 
our  mission  fields  and  assuredly"  requires  more  definite  solution 
than  has  yet  been  found  for  it.  In  the  Philippines  the  future 
seems  to  hold  a hope  that  some  of  the  graduates  of  mission 
schools  such  as  the  Silliman  Institute,  or  graduates  of  the  pub- 
lic schools  may  be  induced  to  go  to  the  University  for  medical 
studies  and  then  return  to  service  as  assistants  in  the  mission 
hospital.s.  At  present  government  employment  or  private  prac- 
tice offers  such  opportunities  for  lucrative  work  that  it  is  diffi- 
cult to  see  how  the  mission  ho.spital  can  win  men  to  its  service, 
but  if  the  gospel  message  which  is  being  daily  taught  there  both 
by  precept  and  example  has  its  rightful  influence  upon  the  new 
generation  of  Filipinos,  we  ma}"  certainly  hope  that  in  time 
there  will  be  some  of  them  ready  to  make  sacrifices  to  enter  this 
field  of  Christian  activity.  Such  a solution  of  this  problem 
seems  entirely  feasible,  for  it  is  assumed  that  if  competently 
trained  and  somewhat  experienced,  these  Filipino  physicians 
should  be  quite  equal  to  the  responsibility  of  conducting  a hos- 
pital for  the  period  of  the  mi.ssionaiw  physician’s  furlough.  At 
present  the  realization  of  this  hope  appears  far  in  the  future, 
but  if  definite  effort  is  made  to  .select  suitable  young  men  and 
impress  upon  them  the  importance  of  such  sendee,  it  should  not 
be  impossible  to  find  .some  equal  to  the  sacrifice.  To  thus  give 
the  Filipinos  themselves  a share  in  the  mission  entei-pri.se,  to 
help  them  to  enter  into  it  and  feel  its  spirit,  should  teach  them 
as  perhaps  nothing  else  could  the  power  of  the  gospel  of  Jesus 
Christ. 

Tagbilaran,  Bohol,  was  our  next  stop,  and  here  we  found  Dr. 
Graham  and  his  wife  conducting  a hospital  and  dispensary  and 
the  evangelistic  work  as  well.  The  hospital  is  small,  having 
about  a dozen  beds;  its  equipment  is  simple  but  adequate  for 
the  purpose  of  a mission  station  in  a town  where  it  is  the  only 
institution  of  the  kind. 

The  ho.spital  has  the  usual  dispensary'  or  out-patient  depart- 
ment, pharmacy,  and  operating  room.  In  conducting  this  work 
the  doctor  is  to  have  the  help  of  an  American  graduate  nurse. 
Miss  Barnet,  but  at  the  time  of  our  visit  this  valued  a.ssistant 
was  quarantined  for  measles.  Slie  was.  however,  convalescing, 
and  has  presumably  long  ago  returned  to  her  duties. 

Dr.  and  l\Irs.  Graham  had  only  recently  returned  from  their 
furlough  and  re-opened  the  hospital,  closed  during  their  absence 
because  there  was  no  one  to  carry  it  on.  The  work  had  there- 
fore not  attained  its  full  headway,  but  the  single  morning  we 
were  able  to  spend  there  brought  a group  of  patients  which 
showed  clearly  that  there  is  plenty  of  work  to  be  done.  There 
is  at  least  one  other  physician  in  the  town,  a Filipino,  graduate 
of  the  University'  in  goverament  employ,  but  Dr.  Graham  tells 
us  that  so  far  as  his  experience  goes  all  the  young  gradiiates  of 
this  school  will  do  practically  nothing  without  pay,  so  that  all 
the  poor  flock  to  the  hospital. 

288 


The  work  on  this  island  is  carried  on  among  an  ignorant  peo- 
ple and  with  open  opposition  from  the  Catholic  clergy,  bnt  under 
Dr.  Graham’s  leadership  progress  is  being  made.  The  medical 
work  is  a very  valuable  agency  under  these  conditions.  We 
heard  from  others  favorable  comment  on  its  wide-spread  influ- 
ence. Would  it  not  be  well  as  soon  as  possible  to  add  an  evan- 
gelist to  this  field?  One  man  with  a hospital  and  dispensary  to 
conduct,  and  outside  calls  to  answer  can  surely  find  but  little 
time  to  give  to  preaching  or  teaching. 

Miss  Barnet’s  presence  in  this  outlying  station  brings  up  a 
question  of  some  importance,  namely,  the  need  of  American 
graduate  nurses  in  the  Philippines.  I have  no  doubt  whatever 
that  Miss  Barnet  will  render  good  service  and  that  she  will  be 
a valuable  aid  to  the  doctor,  but  in  view  of  what  has  already  been 
said  of  the  efficiency  of  the  training  school  of  the  Philippine 
General  Hospital,  and  of  the  fact  that  Dr.  Hall  is  turning  out 
well-trained  nurses  from  the  Union  Hospital  of  Iloilo,  it  seems 
that  we  ought  to  be  able  to  supply  the  needs  of  our  hospitals  from 
one  or  the  other  of  these  sources.  Dr.  Langheim,  as  was  noted, 
has  a graduate  of  the  General  Hospital  and  finds  her  very  ef- 
ficient. A native  woman,  if  she  comes  from  the  district  in  which 
the  hospital  lies  (there  are,  of  course,  man}-  dialects,  so  that 
this  limitation  is  necessary)  would  have  an  almost  invaluable 
advantage  in  knowledge  of  the  language,  manner  of  thought,  and 
customs  of  the  people.  They  would  furthermore  be  under  no  un- 
usual ri.sks  from  climatic  conditions,  could  be  had  at  m\ich  less 
expense  than  graduates  of  our  own  schooks,  and  in  case  of  need 
could  presumably  be  much  more  easily  replaced.  It  would  seem 
that  for  the  future  we  .should  rareh'  need  Americans  for  this 
work  except  as  heads  or  teachers  in  training  .schools. 

Tacloban,  Leyte,  will  I am  .sure,  always  stand  out  in  the  mem- 
ories of  our  party  as  the  scene  of  unique  experience.  Here  we 
found  pioneers,  opening  a new  field  in  a pioneer’s  way,  in  the 
persons  of  Dr.  and  ^Irs.  Warren  Miller.  They  had  been  but  six 
months  in  this  new  station  and  had  only  begun  to  make  head- 
way in  a hostile  community.  They  had  nothing  but  themselves 
and  their  rented  home,  but  what  they  had  they  were  using  to 
the  limit.  Their  hou.'«e,  one-story,  in  the  prevailing  Philippine 
.style,  but  raisefl  so  high  above  the  ground  that  the  basement 
really  constituted  another  floor,  though  it  had  not  been  planned 
to  serve  that  purpose,  was  the  seat  of  more  varied  activities 
than  we  had  ever  before  discovered  under  one  roof.  The  house 
was  perhaps  25  x 25  ft.  with  a wide  verandah  and  a kitchen  an- 
nex. The  veranda  was  the  site  of  the  dispen.sarj\  There  in  the 
morning  the  doctor  brought  a chest  of  medicines,  a few  instru- 
ments, dressings,  etc.,  which  were  laid  out  by  a Filipino  woman 
who  acted  as  assistant,  and  went  to  work  upon  a crowd  of  pati- 
ents that  filled  and  overfiowed  the  place.  His  office  and  operat- 
ing room,  where  all  the  more  serious  cases  were  taken,  was  an 
inner  room,  .so  that  the  patients,  whether  .suffering  from  yaws, 
leprosy  or  what  not,  must  pass  through  the  living  room. 

289 

10 — Report  of  Deputa.Uon. 


In  the  basement  of  the  house  they  had  found  quarters  for 
eight  or  ten  Filipino  boys,  students  in  the  neighboring  high 
school,  too  poor  to  find  lodging  elsewhere  or  individuals  whom 
Dr.  and  Mrs.  Miller  hoped  to  help.  With  them  were  one  or  two 
patients  waiting  for  operations,  and  under  the  stairway  lead- 
ing to  the  upper  floor  in  special  quarters  made  from  a packing 
box,  was  still  another  patient  of  this  class  for  whom  no  place 
could  be  found  elsewhere! 

The  number  of  patients  that  crowded  the  dispen.san,’  the  morn- 
ing of  our  stay  gave  decisive  evidence  that  the  mi.ssionarj’  phy- 
sician never  lacks  work  to  do.  Having  no  hospital  the  doctor 
must  answer  calls  far  and  wide.  In  this  part  of  the  work  he 
finds  a motorcycle  an  invaluable  aid,  and  well  he  might,  since 
the  compass  of  his  practice  in  a single  day  has  been  found  to 
extend  40  kilometers  tall  distances  in  the  Islands  are  reckone<l 
in  metric  terms)  in  one  direction  from  Tacloban  and  30  the 
opposite  way,  something  over  42  miles ! According  to  one  of 
the  stories  we  heard,  the  country'  people  now  put  out  an  Ameri- 
can flag  as  a signal  that  they  wish  the  express  to  stop.  Others 
tell  us  that  the  doctor  is  killing  himself  in  his  unrelenting  ser- 
vice, but  so  far  as  our  obsen  ation  went,  Mrs.  Miller  seems  to 
be  in  much  greater  danger  than  the  vigorous  doctor.  There  was 
no  question  that  even  in  .six  months  they  had  made  a very  defi- 
nite impression  upon  the  community,  and  if  spared  to  continue 
their  work,  as  we  pray  they  may,  they  will  doubtless  find  their 
reward. 

We  were  glad  to  know  that  tentative  plans  had  already  been 
made  for  a hospital  in  Tacloban,  and  that  the  building  prepara- 
tions could  be  begun  as  soon  as  a suitable  site  could  be  had.  We 
went  over  several  .suggested  sites  and  were  quite  agreed  that,  if 
possible,  the  hospital  should  be  built  on  the  water  front  for  the 
sake  of  the  cooler  breezes  which  can  be  depended  upon  only 
there. 

At  Cebu  we  have  no  mission  medical  work,  but  we  found 
there  the  Southern  Islands  Hospital,  built  by  the  Insular  Gov- 
ernment, and  representing  a policy  which  they  hope  to  embody 
in  like  structures  in  all  the  prooncial  capitals.  This  ho.spital 
is  artistically  planned,  octagonal  in  form,  two  stories  in  height, 
of  concrete  construction.  It  at  present  accommodates  sixty 
patients  but  is  planned  to  pennit  con.<5iderable  additions  to  this 
number.  Its  furnishings  are  all  of  the  latest  pattern  and  its 
equipment  quite  complete.  Altogether  it  is  an  excellent  example 
of  modem  Ihospital  oonstmction  and  equipment.  Under  an 
American  physician,  Dr.  Arlington  Pond,  it  is  conducted  ad- 
mirably. The  head  nurse  is  also  an  American.  Indeed  the  hos- 
pital might  well  serve  as  a model  for  others  of  like  kind,  but 
the  government’s  revenues  have  not  been  sufficient  to  permit  the 
construction  of  these  and  the  Southern  Islands  Hospital  re- 
mains the  only  one  of  the  kind. 

During  our  stay  in  Cebu  we  were  given  a novel  and  instruc- 

290 


tive  experience  in  a trip  to  T^^hat  is  knoTVTi  as  Camp  No.  6 in  the 
moiintains  which  rise  close  to  the  city.  The  camp  is  simply  a 
comfortably  furnished  cottage  surrounded  hy  green  terraces  and 
a small  garden  in  which  roses  bloom  and  strawberries  are  grown ! 
It  is  owned  by  two  American  residents  of  Cebu  who  have  vei*}’ 
kindly  offered  the  use  of  it  to  our  missionaries.  Although  lying 
at  an  altitude  of  3,0Q0  ft.  above  the  shore,  it  was  easily  reached 
by  a motor  run  of  an  hour  and  a quarter  over  one  of  the  best 
roads  we  have  ever  traveled,  a road  which  carries  one  in  com- 
fort and  safety  up  the  side  of  a narrow  gorge  around  many  a 
sharp  tura,  made  doubly  perilous  by  sheer  descents  of  1,000  ft. 
or  more  at  the  side.  Such  roads  as  this — there  are  said  to  be 
thousands  of  miles  of  them  already  in  the  Islands — constitute 
most  substantial  evidences  of  the  administrative  skill  and  en- 
ergy" wliich  have  marked  our  conduct  of  the  In.sular  Government. 
The  change  in  atmospliere  and  surroundings  secured  in  a little 
more  than  an  hour’s  travel  was  quite  remarkable.  Our  Cebu 
friends  have  found  it  a delightful  retreat  during  the  hot  .season. 
The  cottage  being  comfortable,  liaving  abundance  of  clear,  cold 
mountain  water  and  otlier  conveniences,  is  quite  as  acceptable 
to  the  women  and  children  as  to  the  men.  Our  mi.ssionaries  look 
forward  to  the  day  when  they  may  themselves  own  a similar  re- 
treat in  the  neighborhood  of  Camp  No.  0. 

In  Albay  we  found  no  medical  missionary  or  medical  work, 
but  only  a j)lace  where  the  medical  missionary  liad  been!  Ming- 
ling with  the  feeling  of  deep  regret  that  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Carter 
had  been  forced  by  his  sickness  to  retire  from  this  field,  we  soon 
found  a great  thankfulness  that  they  had  been  j)ermitted  their 
brief  nine  months’  service  in  Albay.  Tliougii  he  must  for  most 
of  that  period  liave  be(*u  far  from  well,  Dr.  Carter  had  been  able  to 
render  .service  that  was  gratefully  remembered  by  the  people. 
Time  after  time  we  were  a.sked  how  he  fared  and  when  they 
might  hope  for  his  return.  ^Ir.  Brown  assured  us  that  in  the 
short  time  Di-.  Carter  had  been  able  to  work  in  Albay,  he  had 
made  a great  impression  upon  Ihe  people  and  had  endeared  him- 
self to  many.  It  .seemed  to  ns  very  strong  evidence  of  the  value 
of  medical  mis.sion  woi-k  that  so  much  had  been  accom])lished 
under  the  conditions.  Is  it  not  greatly  to  be  desired  that  a 
worthy  successoj'  for  Dr.  Carl(*r  should  be  found  and  sent  to 
continue  his  good  woik  in  this  field?  The  way  has  cei-fainly 
been  ])rej)artHl.  These  ]»eo]de  are  eager  for  it,  and  Mr.  Brown 
keenly  desires  the  aid  he  knows  he  would  get  from  such  help. 
Can  we  not  find  a man  and  send  him  before  lh(‘  influence  of  Dr. 
Carter’s  work  is  lost? 

There  is  a government  ])rovincial  physician,  an  American,  Dr. 
Bichmond,  in  Albay,  but  his  time  is  mainly  occupied  by  the  ad- 
ministrative duties  of  his  ollice.  There  are  also  army  surgeons 
and  Filipino  ])ractitioner.s,  bnt  the  fact  has  already  been  demon- 
strated that  there  is  an  open  field  and  a warm  welcome  awaiting 
the  medical  missionaiw  in  this  field.  There  is  no  ho.spital  ex- 

291 


cept  that  belonging  to  the  detachment  of  the  U.  S.  Army  sta- 
tioned on  the  outskirts  of  Albay. 

In  Nueva  Caceres,  or  Naga  as  it  is  now  called,  the  capital  of 
Ambos  Camarines,  we  also  found  an  American  provincial  phy- 
sician, this  time  in  charge  of  a small  hospital.  This  hosjutal  is 
established  in  an  old  native  building,  the  basement  of  which  is 
well-fitted  for  out-patient  work,  and  the  upper  floor  used  for  a 
ward  containing  10  to  12  befls.  The  work  was  evidently  not  verj’ 
active.  The  doctor  told  me  that  they  had  hoped  to  build  a 
modern  ho.spital  of  larger  capacity,  but  had  been  unable  to  .se- 
cure the  uecessarj-  funds  either  from  the  provincial  or  insular 
governments.  The  explanation.  I think,  of  a comparatively  in- 
active work  in  a city  of  some  thousands  of  inhabitaut.s,  lay  in 
the  fact  that  the  doctor  in  charge  is  not  fond  of  surgical  work 
and  has  done  very  little  of  it.  The  surgeon  does  the  critical, 
dramatic  work,  and  wherever  3011  find  a good  surgecjn  in  these 
newly-opened  places.  3011  find  a thriving  work.  Without  effec- 
tive surger3^  the  work  makes  slow  and  difficult  progress.  These 
facts  are,  I think,  indi.sputable  and  should  be  kept  in  mind  in 
the  selection  of  our  men.  Furthennore.  unless  a 3’oung  man 
has  already  had  good  surgical  training  and  some  experience  be- 
fore he  enters  the  mission  field  he  finds  the  effort  to  acquire 
these  in  the  work  attended  with  such  dangers  that  he  is  likely 
not  to  have  the  courage  to  continue  it.  Ever3’  appointee  for 
service  in  a new  field  should  be  a capable  surgeon  before  under- 
taking his  work. 

In  Naga,  also  we  find  that  Mr.  MacDonald  wants  the  help  of 
a medical  as.sociate.  He  finds  the  people  antagonistic,  if  not 
activel3"  hostile,  and  work  difficult  in  a community  where  the 
presence  of  a bishop  adds  greatly  to  the  authority  and  prestige 
of  the  Catholic  church.  He  longs  for  the  aid  which  medical 
Avork  would  give  in  breaking  down  prejudice  and  winning 
friends.  Ought  he  not  to  have  it.  if  it  can  be  given?  We  may 
say  that  the  government  is  preparing  to  establi.sh  a hospital  and 
take  care  of  the  sick  of  the  communit3’.  but  that  announced  pur- 
pose is  halted  by  lack  of  funds.  From  the  1914  report  of  the 
Bureau  of  Health,  the  following  significant  paragraph  is  quoted : 

“The  hospital  system  in  Manila  and  the  provinces  has  now 
been  extended  to  a point  where  additional  Insular  aid  cannot 
reasonably  be  expected  for  its  maintenance  and  further  progress 
along  this  line  should  come  from  funds  made  available  by  pro- 
vincial or  municipal  governments  or  private  individuals.” 

As  things  economic  are  now  moving  in  the  Philippines,  it  will 
in  all  human  probability  be  mau3’  a long  year  before  much 
further  progress  is  made  along  these  lines.  I greatly  doubt 
whether  any  other  provincial  capitals  will  soon  see  an  equal  to 
the  Southern  Islands  Hospital.  Meanwhile,  the  opportunity  is 
open  to  us  to  develop  other  institutions  on  a par  with  the 
Union  Hospital  of  Iloilo.  Can  we  grasp  it.  or  must  we  let  it  go 
by,  to  regret  later  the  loss  of  the  impetus  that  such  work  gives 
to  our  evangelistic  efforts? 


292 


While  in  Naga  we  made  a trip  by  river  to  the  town  of  Lib- 
manan,  where  among  1,200  inhabitants  there  was  no  physician 
at  all.  During  our  hurried  visit,  one  little  girl,  saiffering  from 
a severe  bronchitis,  was  brought  to  me  by  her  father,  one  of  the 
leaders  of  the  small  local  church,  with  a plea  that  I would  pre- 
scribe for  her;  and  I was  assured  that  there  were  many  other 
patients  waiting  for  me,  if  only  I would  see  them ! All  over  the 
Philippines  there  are  doubtless  communities  of  considerable  size 
in  which  there  is  as  yet  no  physician.  In  the  provinces  there 
are  many  communities  in  which  there  is  not  a phj'sician  to 
200,000  inhabitants.  Ko  better  missionary  material  could  be 
asked  than  Dean  0.  Worcester’s  Chapter  on  “Health  Conditions” 
in  his  “Philippines  Past  and  Pre.sent,”  in  which  he  says : 

“Were  I a young  man  and  pos,sessed  of  adequate  knowledge 
of  medicine  and  surgery,  I would  ask  nothing  better  than  to 
minister  to  the  wants  of  these  peojDle.  One  might  not,  and  in- 
deed would  not,  acquire  great  wealth,  but  he  would  be  rich  in 
friends.  Here  lies  a great  field  for  practical  work.” 

Culion  Leper  Colony:  Although  we  have  no  direct  interest  in 
the  medical  work  among  the  lepers,  I cannot  omit  a brief  ac- 
connt  of  the  visit  Mrs.  Bovaird  and  T made  to  Culion.  At  the 
time  of  the  occupation  of  the  Lslands  by  our  government  there 
was  no  .systematic  work  for  the  lei)ers,  of  whom  there  were  be- 
lieved to  be  30,000.  A few  (about  400 1 were  being  cared  for 
humanely  in  hospitals  in  Manila  and  Cebu,  and  near  Naga  there 
was  also  a .small  leper  hospital,  the  ruins  of  which  were  still 
standing  at  the  time  of  our  visit,  but  the  great  majority  of  the.se 
unfortunates  were  outcasts,  left  to  perish  in  any  manner  that 
they  might.  Not  a few  wandered  at  will  through  the  country, 
spreading  contagion  broadcast.  The  Philipj)ine  Commis.sion 
early  took  uj)  the  problem  of  lei)ro.sy,  and  selected  the  Island  of 
Culion,  lying  perhaps  200  miles  .south  of  Manila,  as  an  ideal 
location  for  a colony.  There  have  now  been  gathered  over  3,900 
lepers,  about  one-half  of  the  total  number  in  the  Islands,  for  on 
actively  taking  up  the  problem  the  gratifying  discovery  was 
made  that  many  of  these  supj)osed  to  be  suffering  from  leprosj’ 
were  afflicted  by  entirely  harmless  diseases  and  were  returned  to 
their  relatives  or  friends. 

The  lepers  in  Culion  live  in  one  great  colony,  mo.st  of  them  in 
their  own  houses  built  in  native  style  from  materials  furnished 
by  the  government,  but  many  of  them  quartered  in  comfortable 
concrete  pavilions  constructed  to  meet  their  needs. 

Those  who  are  able  to  work  have  gardens  of  their  own  out- 
side the  towTi,  and  there  raise  i)igs,  chickens  and  vegetables. 
The  produce  can  be  sold  to  the  colony  and  be  paid  for  at  market 
rates.  The  patients  may  also  fish  at  their  i)leasure  in  the  waters 
about  the  Island.  For  this  purpose  they  use  light  bamboo  rafts 
and  on  these  occasionally  some  of  the  bolder  spirits  make  their 
escape  from  the  Island,  paddling  at  times  as  much  as  100  miles 
away.  Within  the  colony  there  are  stores  where  simple  com-  , 

293 


forts  and  luxuries  may  be  purchased,  a public  hall  where  dances 
and  other  entertainments  are  given,  and  even  a moving-picture 
theatre,  for  whicli  new  films  are  supplied  monthly  from  Manila. 
At  Christmas,  through  the  generosity  of  the  people  of  Manila, 
some  small  remembrance  is  sent  to  eveiw  patient. 

The  medical  work  is  done  by  two  young  physicians,  graduates 
of  Philadelphia  schools,  in  the  .seiwice  of  the  Bureau  of  Health. 
There  is  also  a Filipino  a.ssistant,  who  was  absent  at  the  time 
of  our  visit.  As  nearly  DO  per  cent,  of  the  patients  are  Catholic, 
there  are  several  priests — one  of  whom  has  recently  after  five 
or  six  years’  residence  in  the  colon}'  himself  develope<l  the  dread- 
ed di.sease — and  the  only  nurses  are  a half-dozen  French  or 
ALsatian  Sisters  of  Charity.  We  have  a small  chapel  in  which 
services  are  held  under  the  leadership  of  a Filipino  convert, 
Pedro  Cabncangan,  himself  a lejier.  Dr.  Bodgers  and  Mr.  Wright 
are  planning  to  have  the  cha])el  rebuilt  and  enlarged  and  to 
.send  an  evangelist  to  the  Island  as  soon  as  the  right  man  can 
be  found. 

From  time  to  time  it  has  been  found  possible  to  relea.se  a few 
of  the  j)atients  as  a])])arent  cures,  that  is.  as  free  from  all  clinical 
or  bacteriological  evi<lences  of  the  disen.se.  The  occasion  of  onr 
visit  was  made  memorable  by  the  release  of  24  such  ca.ses,  the 
largest  number  ever  returned  to  ordinary  life  at  one  time  in  the 
history  of  the  colony,  or.  so  far  as  known,  of  any  leper  work. 
The  recovery  of  these  patients  is  assigned  cpiite  as  much  to  the 
good  general  care  they  receive  as  to  tlie  me<licines  administered, 
but  whatever  the  explanation,  if  this  experience  can  be  continue<l 
and  each  year  a certain  number  of  the  i>atients  are  released, 
the  black  shadow  of  utter  hoi)eles.sne.ss  which  has  so  long  added 
terror  to  the  horrors  of  the  disease  will  be  removed  and  a ray  of 
hope  will  be  left  to  its  victims.  Meanwhile,  the  govenimeut  looks 
forward  confidently  to  the  final  triumj)h  of  the  plan  of  rigid 
.segregation  in  the  gradual  reduction  of  infection  and  the  ulti- 
mate stamping  out  of  the  plague. 

Mountain  resorts  in  the  Philippines.  The  value  of  mountain 
resorts  in  the  tro])ics  has  been  thoroughly  demonstrated  by  the 
experience  of  the  British  Army  in  India.  These  resorts  are  used 
not  only  for  those  actually  sick  or  convalescing  from  acute  ill- 
ness, but  regularly  for  the  sake  of  restoring  the  tone  of  those 
debilitated  by  long  residence  on  the  plains  of  India.  To  quote 
Col.  W.  H.  Arthur,  Department  Surgeon  of  the  Philippines,  on 
the  infinence  of  the  tropic  conditions  in  the  Islands: 

“Experience  has  shown  that  long  residence  in  the  Philippines 
has  a marked  effect  on  the  mental  and  physical  vigor  of  people 
not  born  and  raised  in  the  tropics.  This  is  manife.sted  in  many 
ways  and  men.  women  and  children,  who  are  not  actually  ill. 
seem  to  lose  their  energ}’,  become  li.stles.s.  irritable  and  forget- 
ful, and  find  the  least  bodily  exertion  burden.some.  This  is 
much  aggravated  in  the  hot  season  and  veiw  few  individuals 
, manage  without  permanent  mental  and  physical  deterioration,  to 
live  through  many  hot  seasons  in  the  plains.” 

294 


Major  Ashburn,  of  the  U.  S.  Army  Medical  Corps,  has  also  ex- 
pressed the  following  opinion : 

“A  man  can  remain  indefinitely  in  the  tropics  without  being 
sick,  if  he  escapes  infectious  diseases. 

“This  is  fast  leading  to  the  fallacy  that  we  can  advantageous- 
ly live  many  years  in  these  latitudes.  The  fact  that  while  a 
man  may  never  be  sick,  lie  may  yet  have  his  physical  and  mental 
vigor  greatly  impaired  by  prolonged  exposure  to  heat,  is  thus 
lost  sight  of.  No  man  can  do  his  best  work,  either  mental  or 
physical,  if  he  is  hot  and  uncomfortable.  The  same  feeling  of 
lassitude  and  indisposition  to  exertion  is  experienced  at  home 
during  the  hot  summer,  which  after  a few  years  here,  becomes 
chronic. . . .It  is  likewise  commonly  recognized  that  under  tropi- 
cal conditions  men  frequently  become  .so  run-down  and  debili- 
tated as  to  need  to  go  to  Japan,  Baguio,  or  the  United  States.” 

The  British  Araiy  in  India  now  maintains  29  hill  .stations,  at 
altitudes  varying  from  2,000  to  8,000  ft.  above  .sea  level.  The 
Philippine  Commi.ssion  was  fortunate  enough  to  discover  with- 
in a half  day’s  journey  (by  rail  or  motor)  of  Manila  an  ideal 
mountain  re.sort  in  Baguio  in  the  jirovince  of  Benguet,  a town 
lying  5,000  ft.  above  sea  and  about  180  miles  due  north  of  Manila. 
Baguio,  as  we  saw  it,  .s]>reads  over  a series  of  rolling  hills  cov- 
ered everywhere  by  an  abundant  growth  of  pine  trees  standing 
at  such  distance  from  one  another  and  so  free  from  undergrowtli 
as  to  make  one  think  of  a great  park.  The  sun  .shines  in  tropic 
brilliance  almost  the  year  around  and  yet  the  temperature  in 
the  shade  never  j>asses  70  degrees  Fahrenheit,  and  the  nights  are 
cool  enough  to  require  blankets!  To  come  into  such  an  atmos- 
phere from  the  heat  and  dust  of  the  plains  is  a foretaste  of  para- 
dise. Small  wonder  that  since  oOr  representatives  opened  it  up, 
Baguio  has  grown  i-apidly  into  a j)lace  of  importance  in  the  life 
of  the  people  of  the  Lslands.  The  anny  maintains  a military 
camp  there  and  a military  hos])ital.  During  the  Republican 
regime,  Baguio  for  four  months  of  the  year  was  the  capital  and 
all  the  government  offices  were  removed  there.  For  rea.sons  of 
economy  Gov.  Harrison  has  departed  from  that  polic}^  The 
Methodists  and  Episcopalians  have  built  rest-houses  for  their 
I)eople,  and  Bishoj)  Breiit  has  established  there  a veiu,’  success- 
ful scluml  for  boys  (American  I,  and  also  an  indu.strial  school 
for  Igorrote  girls.  Apiireciating  the  value  of  the  resort  for 
health  i)uriK)ses,  our  Board  soniie  years  agol  autlmrized  (the 
jmrchase  of  a j)lot  of  ground,  but  nothing  has  been  done  to  de- 
veloj)  it.  Dr.  Rodgers  has  for  .some  yeaj's  had  a cottage,  the  use 
of  which  many  other  nuunbers  of  the  mission  have  enjoyed.  There 
seems  no  question  whatever  that  it  would  be  advantageous  to 
the  mission  and  jn-ofitable  in  every  way  to  the  board,  to  develop 
in  Baguio  a resort  to  which  our  men,  women  and  children  could 
re]>air  during  the  hot  season  oi-  at  times  of  illnes.s.  The  mission 
voted  at  the  August  meeting  to  appropriate  to  this  purpose  some 
.84,000  derivcMl  from  certain  fees  paid  for  the  architectural 

295 


services  of  Mr.  Gunn.  The  appropriation  was  made  only  after 
years  of  inaction  and  an  earnest  debate,  some  of  the  mission 
being  loth  to  see  all  the  money  spent  on  Baguio,  which  is  inac- 
cessible to  quite  a number  of  the  stations.  It  was  .so  clear  that 
we  should  have  .some  facilities  at  Baguio,  and  that  these  would 
be  available  for  the  u.se  of  many  of  the  .stations  that  the  motion 
finally  carried,  and  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  definite  action  will 
now  be  taken.  There  is  a question  as  to  the  advisability  of  de- 
veloping the  plot  of  ground  now  held.  Some  think  it  too  far 
from  the  centres  of  intere.st  at  Baguio,  yet  as  people  ought  to 
go  there  for  rest  and  recreation  rather  than  to  attend  ser\’ices 
and  conference.s,  that  does  not  seem  a serious  di.squalification. 
There  are  more  important  questions  as  to  modes  of  entrance  and 
exit  and  water  supply.  But  whether  on  that  .site  or  another, 
I regard  it  as  a matter  of  vital  importance  to  the  welfare  of 
the  mission,  and  therefore  of  concern  to  the  Board,  that  the  ad- 
vantages of  Baguio  should  be  made  available  for  our  mis.sion- 
aries  and  their  families.  If  it  be  neces.sary,  it  would  certainly 
be  sound  business  for  the  Board  to  make  additional  appropria- 
tions for  this  purpose.  Our  experience  in  the  Islands,  so  far  as 
health  is  concerned,  has  thus  far  been  very  fortunate,  partly 
because  the  missionaries  are  comparatively  young,  their  terms 
of  service  have  not  been  long,  and  they  were  carefully  selected 
risks  when  they  began  their  duties.  We  must  naturally  expect 
more  illness  and  invalidism  in  coming  years.  A sojourn  of  a 
few  weeks  at  Baguio  yearly  will  do  much  to  prevent  breakdowns 
and  add  to  the  vigor  of  the  whole  force. 

But  fortunately  our  people  are  not  limited  to  Baguio.  The 
possibilities  of  Camp  ^so.  6 for  Cebu,  have  already  been  pre- 
sented. Near  Dumaguete,  in  fact  within  a few  hours’  rather 
hard  travel,  there  are  mountain  lakes  on  which  some  of  our 
friends  have  camped  with  great  pleasure  and  physical  profit,  but 
at  present  these  are  accessible  only  for  those  who  do  not  mind 
climbing  and  who  like  to  camp  out. 

At  Camp  Keithley,  Mindanao,  at  an  altitude  of  2,000  ft.,  there 
is  an  army  post  with  a ho.spital  surrounded  by  a small  town, 
where  some  of  the  missionaries  from  Dumaguete  and  that  region 
have  gone  at  times.  It  is  said  to  be  very  comfortable. 

In  Albay  and  the  Camarines,  there  are  also  several  camping 
sites  in  the  mountains,  which  some  of  our  missionaries  have 
found  satisfactory  resorts  during  the  heated  spells.  This  is  im- 
portant now,  when  it  is  a long  and  expensive  journey  to  reach 
Manila  and  thence  Baguio,  but  when  the  railroad  is  completed 
to  these  parts,  as  it  soon  should  be,  it  will  be  much  easier  for 
the  missionaries  in  these  provinces  to  reach  Baguio.  We  must 
bear  in  mind  that  we  all  vary  greatly  in  our  tastes  as  to  va- 
cations and  that  even  if  we  have  a satisfactory  resort  at  Baguio, 
we  cannot  expect  all  of  our  people  to  prefer  it,  nor  all  who  like 
it  to  be  nulling  to  go  year  after  year  to  the  one  place.  It  is 
therefore  very  fortunate  that  there  are  so  many  available  resorts 

296 


within  the  Islands.  We  cannot  expect  to  develop  them  all  in 
like  manner,  but  doubtless  with  small  expense  some  of  them 
can  be  made  of  service  as  presenting  different  surroundings  and 
a different  life  from  that  of  Baguio.  Finally,  with  relation  to 
the  latter  resort,  there  seems  to  be  a tendency  to  make  the  time 
when  missionaries  naturally  assemble  there,  the  occasion  for 
conventions,  committee  meetings,  lectures  and  the  like.  This  is 
all  very  natural  and  may  be  beneficial  for  those  in  perfect  health 
and  desiring  only  mental  change,  but  when  all  the  various  mis- 
sions establish  rest-houses  there  and  many  missionaries  gather 
together  at  one  time,  that  sort  of  thing  may  well  be  overdone 
and  much  of  the  benefit  of  the  vacation  lost. 

Finally,  one  cannot  review  the  medical  work  done  in  the  Phil- 
ippines Islands  since  1808  without  a thrill  of  pride  at  what  has 
been  done  under  the  authority  of  the  United  States  Govern- 
ment. The  wusdom  and  scope  of  the  plans  on  which  reforms 
have  been  introduced,  as  well  as  the  skill  and  energy  with  which 
they  have  been  carried  out,  command  profound  admiration.  As 
Dr.  Rodgers  more  than  once  observed,  the  representatives  of  our 
government,  as  a body,  have  proven  themselves  quite  as  worthy 
of  the  title  of  mis.sionaries  as  the  representatives  of  the  church. 
As  compared  with  their  accomplishments,  the  medical  work  of 
our  own  missionarie.s,  though  honorable,  seems  small  indeed.  We 
long  to  see  them  have  a larger  share  in  the  wmrk  that  is  still  to  be 
done,  but  if  that  desire  is  to  be  realized,  men  of  the  very  highest 
standard,  not  only  in  professional  qualification.s,  but  in  Chris- 
tian character  as  well,  bust  be  secured  for  the  service.  None 
other  can  do  the  work  as  it  should  be  done. 


297 


6.  PEOPERTY,  TREASURY  AND  BUSINESS  QUESTIONS 

BY  DWIGHT  H.  DAY 

We  left  Bangkok  on  July  17th,  sailing  by  the  S.  S.  “Katong” 
for  Singapore,  where  after  only  a scant  two-days’  wait  we  were 
fortunate  enough  to  get  berths  on  the  Sjianish  Mail,  which  comes 
through  once  a month,  on  the  S.  S.  “C.  Lopez  y Lopez,”  bound 
for  Iloilo,  P.  I.  Thus  we  were  landeil  Avell  to  the  south  in  the 
Philippines  instead  of  at  Manila,  and  were  saved  several  days 
of  travel. 


The  complete  itineraiw  from  Bangkok  through  the  Philippines 
was  as  follows: 


July  17th-19th 

3 

days 

“ 20th-21st 

2 

“ 21st-25th 

Iloilo  

4 

it 

“ 2C)th-Aug.  1 

7 

Aug.  2nd 

1 

day 

“ 3rd-.5th  

3 

days 

“ 6th 

1 

day 

“ 7th  

% 

“ 

“ 7th  

Launch  

« 

“ 8th-llth  

4 

days 

“ 12th  

doro"  

% 

day 

“ 12th-13th 

In  Tacloban  

1 

<« 

“ 13th-14th  

S.  S.  “Mindoro” 

1 

<. 

“ 14th-17th  

3% 

days 

“ 18th  

% 

dav 

“ 18th-20th  

2K 

days 

“ 21st  

% 

day 

“ 21st  

P.  M.— In  Albav  

% 

“ 22nd  

elle  Poizat”  

1 

<. 

“ 23rd  

1 

“ 24th-27th  

trict  by  automobile 

4 

days 

“ 2Sth-Sept.  3 . . . . 

In  Manila  

7 

Summary  : — Sailing  Siam  to  the  Philippines  via  Singapore,  !)  days ; in  the 
Philippine  district,  40  days : 34  days  spent  in  Stations  or  visiting  Mission  dis- 
tricts ; 6 days  spent  in  transportation. 


It  will  be  understood  that  the  division  into  days  and  half-days 
is  not  exact  in  some  cases. 

We  were  able  thus  to  visit  eveiw  one  of  the  nine  stations  of 
the  mission  located  on  six  different  Islands  which  include  Panay, 
Oriental  Negros.  Bohol,  Cebu,  Leyte  and  Luzon  and  in  the  order 
named.  The  only  Island  of  importance  in  the  group  which  we 
did  not  visit  was  that  of  Mindanao  in  the  extreme  south  and 
there  our  Board  has  no  mission  station.  At  Singapore  we  were 

298 


nearest  the  Equator  of  any  time  during  the  entire  trip,  being 
two  degrees  north  at  that  point.  Manila  is  twelve  degrees  north. 
We  were  specially  favored  as  to  weather,  for  while  a bagnio  or 
hard  southwest  blow  kept  us  three  or  four  days  longer  in  Iloilo 
than  we  had  planned,  we  were  not  inconvenienced  or  menaced  by 
severe  storms  when  making  the  inter-island  trips  on  small  boats 
at  a season  when  such  are  to  be  expected.  Sailing  through  Phil- 
ippine waters  is  a most  delightful  experience,  offering  change  of 
scene  and  variety  of  coloring  continually,  the  rich  tropical  foli- 
age and  the  beautiful  hills  and  mountains  being  the  special  fea- 
tures. We  saw  little  or  no  swamp  and  morass,  as  one  might 
suppose,  and  in  a tour  through  the  Islands  one  does  not  gain 
the  impression  that  there  is  much  wild  and  impenetrable  jungle. 
On  the  contraiw,  one  sees  cocoanut  groves  enormous  in  extent, 
and  .sugar  cane,  hemp  and  a variety  of  fruits  being  cultivated. 
Xo  American  fas  citizens  of  the  United  States  are  called  the 
world  over)  can  visit  the  Pliilippine  Islands  without  feeling  a 
new  pride  in  his  countiw  for  its  achievements  there.  Everywhere 
one  feels  the  throb  of  an  awakened  life  and  activitv  that  means 
progress  and  prosj>erity.  The  Filipinos  have  learned  more  Eng- 
li.sh  in  fifteen  years  than  they  learned  Spanish  during  the  pre- 
ceding four  hundred.  Along  the  highway  one  passes  happy 
school  children,  books  and  slates  under  their  arms,  looking  clean 
and  attractive  in  their  well-ironed  frocks;  or  one  visits  the 
schools  themselves  and  looks  into  the  faces  of  hundreds  of  eager 
boys  and  girls  who  di-iidv  in  the  message  that  may  be  given  them, 
with  raj)t  attention.  The  educational  work  of  the  government 
is  thoroughly  sy.stematized  from  the  primaTw  grades  to  the  Uni- 
versity at  IManila,  and  includes  trade  schools  and  courses  in 
domesfic  science,  weaving  and  kindred  industries.  A hearty 
tribute  must  be  paid  fo  the  American  teachers  in  these  schools. 
From  the  vers'  first  they  have  been  of  high  (piality  and  they  have 
done  their  work  in  a s'pirit  of  devotion  and  earnest  de.sirt'  to 
uplift  the  people  that  is  truly  missionary.  They  are  fine  exam- 
ples of  the  best  American  spirit.  Since  the  government  thus 
takes  care  of  educational  work,  there  is  no  necessitv  for  the 
ini.ssions  having  schools  with  the  exception  of  SilliTiian  Insti- 
tute at  Dumaguete,  . and  the  Theological  School  at  Dlanila. 
There  is  great  need,  however,  for  dormitories  located  near  the 
government  schools,  whei-e  boys  a!id  girls  may  be  safely  housed 
and  where  they  cati  be  put  under  religions  instruction.  The  two 
dormitories  in  Febu.  one  for  boys  and  OTie  for  girls,  have  amply 
justified  the  mission  in  planning  lliem,  the  boys’  dormitory  tliis 
year  furnishing  residence  for  rejiresentatives  from  eiglit  jirov- 
inces,  and  the  girls’  from  five.  Quarters  are  reserved  for  Filipino 
te.achers,  and  limited  sj»ace  is  kept  free  foi‘  transients  who  are 
in  one  Avay  or  another  connected  with  our  constituency  and 
who  go  back  to  their  homes  with  Fliristian  literature  obtained 
at  the  dormitoiw.  The  new  dorrniton'  building  at  Iloilo  has 
already  proved  popular  and  will  supply  a great  need.  Sillinian 

299 


Institute  with  its  seven  hundred  students  holds  a unique  place 
in  the  Islands  and  it  is  highly  to  be  desired  that  the  plans  for 
the  betterment  and  extension  of  its  etpiipment  will  be  carried 
through  promptly.  Certainly  the  devotion  and  untiring  efforts 
of  the  missionary  staff  in  charge  call  loudly  for  hearty  co-opera- 
tion on  the  part  of  the  Church  at  home. 

The  value  of  good  roads  in  uplifting  a people  is  amply  illus- 
trated in  the  Philippines.  Easy  intercommunication  promotes 
education  and  trade  and  releases  hitherto  pent-up  forces  and 
products  upon  which  the  progress  of  communities  depends.  Our 
party  toured  for  hundreds  of  miles  over  the  finest  of  roads  which 
the  government  has  constructed  throughout  the  Islands,  eveiw 
mile  of  which  has  its  repairer  in  charge  of  the  mending  and 
grading  for  his  section.  We  were  able  therefore  to  visit  easily 
a number  of  out-lying  points  and  to  see  something  of  the  interior 
of  the  Island.s,  as  well  as  enjoy  the  magnificent  scenery  which 
the  automobile  thus  afforded.  A few  years  ago  our  missionaries 
struggled  through  water  and  mud  several  feet  deep  in  their 
itinerating,  where  now  smooth  macadam  roads  afford  perfect 
transportation  by  wheel.  These  are  the  roads  maintained  by 
the  Insular  Government. 

RELIGIOUS  CONDITIONS 

There  is  steady  and  solid  progress  along  all  lines  of  our  mis- 
sionan'  activity  fl)  in  the  establishing  and  building  up  of  con- 
gregations into  churches  by  the  itinerating  evangeli.st.s,  (2)  in 
winning  individuals  and  creating  a sympathetic  atmosphere  by 
the  physicians  and  their  nurses  and  assistants,  (3)  in  laying 
foundations  for  Christian  character  and  for  the  future  of  the 
Church  in  our  school  and  donnitory  work,  and  (4)  in  training 
leaders  for  the  Church  in  the  Theological  Seminary  and  Bible 
Training  School  in  Manila.  Each  phase  of  the  work  marks  ad- 
vances and  victories  and  we  thank  God  for  this  bles.sing  upon 
the  zeal  and  consecration  of  His  devoted  servants.  Each  de- 
partment of  endeavor  has  its  hindrances  and  pitfalls  and  its  yet 
undeveloped  possibilities.  The  churches  have  not  begun  to  rea- 
lize their  responsibility  in  giving  and  self-support;  the  people 
are  not  poor  generally,  and  yet  they  do  not  begin  to  support 
their  pastors  and  their  churches  as  they  should.  In  the  early 
days  the  invitation  was  to  come  to  a “free”  gospel,  in  contra- 
distinction to  the  Church  of  Rome,  and  this  was  interpreted  as 
not  requiring  financial  support  which  the  Roman  Catholic  church 
had  demanded  with  such  an  iron  hand.  Xow,  however,  the  lead- 
ers are  awaking  to  the  fact  that  systematic  and  proportionate 
giving  is  necessary  to  healthy  Christian  life  and  if  ever  the 
churches  are  to  be  self-supporting,  self-governing  and  self-propo- 
gating,  the  elemental  principle  of  sacrifice  must  be  inculcated. 
There  hgs  indeed  been  sacrifice  and  great  devotion  in  the  in- 
stances where  church  buildings  have  been  erected  by  the  people, 
soimetimes  replaced  two  or  three  times  after  destruction  by 

300 


stonns  and  in  one  or  two  districts  there  has  been  real  poverty 
due  to  typhoon,  drought  and  locusts  following  one  after  the 
other.  All  this  is  gladly  recognized.  It  seems  easier  to  get 
contributions  in  a special  effort,  for  a building,  than  to  get  a 
general  principle  of  giving  established  in  the  life  of  the  church. 
The  average  Filipino  has  no  conception  of  thrift  or  saving;  he 
spends  all  his  monej’  as  he  gets  it  without  thought  of  the  future, 
and  naturally  his  giving  can  scarcely  be  systematic.  It  was 
suggested  in  a conference  of  native  church  leaders,  gathered 
from  quite  a wide  district,  that  church  members  be  educated 
to  lay  aside  a certain  proportion  of  whatever  income  they  re- 
ceived, for  the  support  of  their  church,  placing  it  at  once  in  the 
hands  of  a suitable  person  or  institution  and  to  be  used  in  ac- 
cordance with  a general  church  plan.  Certain  it  is  that  they 
must  be  guided  in  very  definite  and  concrete  ways  if  the  results 
desired  are  ever  to  be  attained. 

In  the  medical  work,  the  danger  of  allowing  the  physical  to 
completely  displace  the  spiritual  aspects  is  ever  present,  and 
definite  and  adequate  results  can  onlj’  be  obtained  by  a very 
careful  and  thorough  follow-up  system.  In  this  the  evangelistic 
missionarj’  can  do  invaluable  supplementary"  work. 

The  boys  of  our  .school  at  Silliman,  and  in  the  dormitories  at 
Cebu  and  elsewhere  neetl  fhe  sympathetic  counsel  and  guidance 
individually,  which  only  the  missionary  is  able  to  give;  and  the 
danger  here  is  that  the  number  of  students  shall  grow  so  large 
or  the  missionaries  in  charge  become  so  burdened  with  a multi- 
plicity of  responsibilities  that  personal  dealing  will  be  out  of 
the  question.  Promising  boys  must  be  laid  hold  of  and  guided 
into  such  Christian  character  as  will  be  fit  material  out  of 
which  to  build  leadership  for  the  church.  Xor  should  we  fail 
to  keep  track  of  students  and  corresjjond  with  them  from  time 
to  time,  after  they  leave  the  institutioms.  How  to  do  thi.s,  with 
our  present  inade<iuate  forces,  is  of  course  the  problem. 

MISSION  PROPERTY 

The  more  recent  buildings  of  the  mission  are  very-  satisfactory-, 
both  with  regard  to  arrangement  and  appearance,  proving  the 
wisdom  of  carefully  drawn  plans  and  scientific  architectural 
supervision.  It  is  greatly  to  be  desired  that  this  same  direction 
and  oversight  may  be  continued  for  the  buildings  now  in  pro- 
cess of  being  erected,  and  for  those  projected  at  Tacloban, 
Dumaguete,  Albay  and  Los  Banos.  For  the  present  this  work 
must  be  combined  with  the  work  of  the  mis.sion  treasurer,  but 
just  as  soon  as  the  Boanl  is  able  to  .send  out  a' man  to  take  the 
treasury  work,  in  accordance  with  the  unanimous  request  of  the 
mission,  the  architect  should  be  set  free  to  devote  himself  to 
buildings.  This  ought  to  be  done  all  the  more  quickly  ina.smuch 
as  he  could  then  serve  South  China  also,  in  accordance  with  the 
request  of  that  mis.sion,  and  thereby  render  invaluable  aid  to  the 
large  building  project  at  True  Light  Seminary.  Building  opera- 
tions involving  upwards  of  §100,000  require  "not  only  scientific 

301 


planning  but  continuity  of  direction  which  only  one  devoted  to 
that  object  can  give,  and  the  amount  to  be  spent  in  building 
more  than  justifies,  indeed  it  demands,  competent  oversight  from 
the  standpoint  of  mere  business  prudence.  If  the  time  shall 
come  when  the  Philippine  and  South  China  Mi.ssions  do  not  re- 
quire this  service  to  the  same  extent,  the  Board  can  consider 
lending  part  of  the  architect’s  time  to  other  organizations  which 
now  are  clamoring  for  his  helj),  or  transferring  him  to  other 
China  fields  or  to  Korea  where  for  some  years  to  come  such  skill 
will  be  greatly  in  demand. 

The  older  structures  of  the  mission  are  not  .so  attractive  from 
an  architectural  point  of  view.  One  wishes,  for  instance,  that 
the  main  school  building  of  Silliman  Institute  could  be  re-made, 
when  the  new  buildings  that  are  planned  are  erected,  so  that  it 
would  conform  to  the  newer  and  better  architecture  and  be 
given  a more  substantial  and  enduring  appearance. 

Periodical  painting  and  diligent  repair  work  are  neces.sary  to 
the  proper  care  of  buildings  e.specially  in  a country  where  white 
ants  are  so  destructive  and  the  mission  will  probably  find  it 
necessary  to  considerably  increase  its  items  in  Class  VII  as  its 
property  holdings  grow. 


TITLES 

Thanks  to  an  efficient  government  there  is  little  or  no  anxiety 
with  regard  to  property  titles  in  the  Philijipine.s.  All  the  lands 
of  the  Islands  are  being  officially  .surveyed  and  where  this  has 
already  been  done,  title  is  registered  by  the  government  provid- 
ed all  adverse  claims  have  been  .satisfied  and  legal  pos.ses.sion 
can  be  proved.  The  projierties  of  the  Board  are  rapidly  coming 
within  the  survey  and  registei-ed  titles  are  being  secured  as  rap- 
idly as  it  becomes  possible.  In  all  cases,  all  the  interests  of  pri- 
vate parties  and  all  adverse  claims  of  every  kind  are  purchased 
and  satisfied  and  the  Board  holds  undisputed  posses.sion. 

NEW  PROPERTY 

It  is  generally  very  difficult  to  obtain  new  ground  for  mission 
purposes  in  the  Philippines,  as  it  seems  to  be  also  in  most  east- 
ern connti*ies,  and  e.'ipecially  difficult  in  China.  Owners  are  very 
reluctant  to  part  with  their  holdings,  even  though  they  may  be 
hard  pressed  financially  and  to  realize  on  their  assets  would  ap- 
pear to  be  a relief.  The  easy  buying  and  selling  of  the  West 
is  unknown  in  the  Orient.  There  is  therefore  no  real  estate  mar- 
ket in  which  prices  are  more  or  less  known  and  stable.  The  con- 
sequence is  that  it  is  necessary  to  wait  for  months  and  even 
years  sometimes  in  order  to  get  a piece  of  desirable  land,  and 
often  the  funds  in  payment  must  be  dangled  before  the  eyes  of 
owners  before  they  will  let  go.  Likewise  owners  may  suddenly 
conclude  to  sell,  or  some  exigency  compel  them  to  sell  a piece 
of  land  which  they  know  the  mission  desires  to  get,  and  it  is  of 
the  utmost  impoidance  that  a bargain  be  struck  at  once  and  the 
money  paid  over.  Delay  may  lose  for  all  time  land  which  is 

302 


essential  for  the  expansion  of  a plant,  or  for  the  symmetry  of 
its  grounds,  dr  even  for  the  health  of  the  workers.  Such  diffi- 
culties explain  some  of  our  limited  compounds,  and  their  ir- 
regularity as  well  as  some  of  the  financial  embarrassments  in 
connection  with  the  acquisition  of  new  property,  and  it  is  quite 
remarkable  that  these  have  not  been  far  worse  than  they  have 
been. 

MISSION  TREASURY  AND  ACCOUNTS 

In  1912  the  Philippine  mission  took  drastic  action  regarding 
expenditures  beyond  appropriations  on  the  part  of  some  of  the 
stations  and  since  that  time  there  has  been  no  trouble  in  this 
regard.  The  accounts  are  centralized  at  Manila  under  a treas- 
urer sent  out  by  the  Board  for  that  special  work  and  the  results 
both  to  the  office  in  Xew  York  and  to  the  mission  have  demon- 
strated the  wisdom  of  the  step.  It  is  important  that  a new  man 
be  found  for  this  post  in  order  to  set  free  the  present  mission 
treasurer  for  his  building  and  architectural  work.  The  action 
of  the  mission  with  reference  to  the  architect,  and  a new  treas- 
urer is  as  follows : 

1.  That  we  as  a mission  endorse  the  idea  of  a careful  and 
complete  organization  of  the  field  administration  of  all  the  busi- 
ness of  the  Philippines  Mission  other  tlian  accounting  with 
special  reference  to  the  property  interests  of  the  Board. 

2.  Tliat  we  ask  the  Board  to  establish  in  Manila  an  Archi- 
tect’s office  at  the  earlie.st  opportunity,  with  the  extension  of 
administration  in  our  own  mission  to  such  adjacent  countries 
as  may  be  deemed  practical  and  j)roviding  for  such  service  to 
other  communions  as  may  be  possible  and  desirable. 

3.  That  the  mission  ask  the  Board  to  secure  another  man  for 
the  Philippines  as  soon  as  possible  who  is  qualified  b}^  previous 
training  in  book-keeping  to  act  as  mission  treasurer  and  whose 
ability  as  a Christian  worker  will  enable  him  to  assist  in  other 
fonns  of  work  in  the  mission. 

4.  That  as  soon  as  this  plan  is  api)roved  by  the  Board  Mr. 
Gunn  is  authorized  to  prepare  such  detailed  plans  as  may  be 
necessary'  and  submit  the  same  to  the  Property  and  Executive 
Committees  for  final  approval. 

5.  That  the  mission  recognize  formally  the  architectural 
work  of  Mr.  Gunn  as  a distinct  ]>art  of  his  work. 

0.  That  Mr.  Gunn  be  elected  treasurer  to  serve  until  this 
plan  is  approved  and  the  new  treasurer  is  appointed  and  that 
in  view  of  the  large  amount  of  architectural  and  building  work 
now  projected  in  the  mission,  Mr.  Gunn  be  requested  to  give  his 
services  entirely  to  the  work  of  the  mission,  freeing  himself  as 
.soon  as  possible  from  the  obligations  contracted  with  the  South 
China  ^ili.ssion  with  the  consent  of  the  Executive  Committee,  it 
being  understood  that  Mr.  Gunn’s  obligations  to  the  South  China 
Mission  include  any  services  which  to  him  may  seem  necessary 
until  the  comi)letion  of  the  buildings  of  the  True  Light  Seminary 
for  which  he  has  drawn  plans. 

303 


7.  That  during  the  absence  from  Manila  of  Mr.  Gunn  either 
Mr.  Wright  or  Mr.  Rodgers  be  authorized  to  act  as  mission 
treasurer. 

The  visit  of  the  Deputation  to  the  Philippines  was  made 
doubly  happy  by  the  company  of  Rev.  James  B.  Rodgers  who 
met  the  party  at  Iloilo  and  guided  them  throughout  their  tour. 
In  very  few  districts  the  atmosphere  in  which  we  are  working  is 
distinctly  unfriendly,  where  strong  influence  operates  to  preju- 
dice the  minds  of  the  people,  but  the  melting  power  of  love  and 
unselfish  service  that  we  saw  everywhere  displayed  by  our  mis- 
sionaries is  working  its  sure  results  and  will  continue  to  do  so 
to  the  establi.shing  of  the  truth. 


304 


I 


III.  THE  MISSION  IN  JAPAN 


1.  First  Impressions  upon  Revisiting  Japan 307-310 

2.  Second  Impressions  upon  Revisiting  Japan 311-319 

3.  Our  Work  v?ith  Christ  and  with  the  Church  of  Christ  in 

Japan  320-324 

4.  The  Thirtieth  Anniversary  of  the  Hokoriku  Jogakko.  . 325-330 

5.  Some  Present  Missionary  Movements  and  Problems  in 

Japan  331-341 

6.  Problems  of  Health  in  Japan 342-345 

7.  Property,  Treasury,  and  Business  Questions 346-348 


III.  THE  MISSION  IN  JAPAN 

1.  FIRST  IMPRESSl'ONS  UPON  RE-VISITING  JAPAN 

S.  S.  “Korea,”  May  10,  1915. 

One’s  first  impressions  of  a land  visited  for  the  first  time,  or 
re-visited  after  many  years  are,  of  necessity,  superficial  but  they 
have  perhaps  a value  of  their  own  not  less  than  that  of  more 
deliberate  judgment.  Some  things  are  seen  most  clearly  only 
at  first  glance,  and  if  not  seen  then  may  be  missed  altogether. 
It  may  be  worth  while  accordingly^  to  set  down  some  of  the  im- 
pressions which  Japan  makes  at  once  upon  a visitor  coming 
back  after  eighteen  years. 

The  outward  changes  have  not  been  specially  marked.  There 
are  few  if  any  perceptible  changes  in  the  fashions  of  the  peo- 
ples’ dress.  The  increase  in  the  number  of  men  wearing  west- 
ern clothing  seems  to  be  slight  and  thus  far  I have  seen  but 
one  Japanese  woman  wearing  foreign  style.  The  railroad  sta- 
tions and  rolling  stock  appear  to  be  the  same  as  eighteen  years 
ago.  Whereas  in  America  on  all  our  good  railroads  the  stations 
have  been  largely  rebuilt  and  tlie  rolling  stock  entirely  changed 
within  these  years,  in  .Tapan  one  would  judge  the  expenditure 
of  the  nation  upon  the  imju-ovenient  of  its  railways,  and  railway 
equipment  can  not  have  been  pro])ortionately  anything  like  the 
expenditure  in  America.  Many  new  buildings  have  been  erected 
but  there  has  been  nothing  like  the  architectural  transforma- 
tion that  has  j)assed  over  many  an  American  city.  Even  in 
Osaka,  the  great  commercial  city  of  .Iax)an,  where  disastrous 
fires  compelled  the  rebuilding  of  large  sections  of  the  city,  the 
most  noticeable  change  has  not  been  the  construction  of  new 
buildings  or  buildings  of  a new  style  of  architecture,  but  the 
laying  out  here  and  there  of  very  Avide  streets  to  serve  as  fire- 
breaks against  a repetition  of  old  conflagrations.  Not  to  pro- 
long concrete  illustrations,  it  is  enough  to  say  that  the  general 
aspect  of  the  outward  life  of  Japan  is  very  much  what  I remem- 
ber it  to  have  been  eighteen  years  since.  One  trivial  change 
which,  after  all,  and  on  second  thought  will  not  be  pronounced 
trivial,  is  the  substitution  on  the  jinrickishas  of  rubber  tired, 
wire-spoked,  ball-bearing  wheels  for  the  old  solid  hubs  and 
wooden  spokes  and  iron  tires.  The  u.se  of  bicycles  also  has 
enormously  increased  and  also  the  use  of  Engli.sh  although,  in 
view  of  the  (piantity  and  the  long  years  of  teaching  of  the  Eng- 
lish language  in  the  schools  one  wonders  that  there  is  not  still 
more  general  understanding  of  it.  1 suspect,  however,  that  what 
restilts  there  have  been  are  much  wider  and  more  durable  than 
the  results  of  the  teaching  of  modern  and  classical  languages  in 
our  schools  at  home. 


307 


One  hears  criticism  of  the  efficiency  of  the  school  system.  It 
is  charged  that  a large  percentage  of  those  who  have  been  edu- 
cated in  the  schools  are  unable  later  to  pass  moderate  literacj' 
tests,  but  literacy  tests  in  a language  which  uses  the  Chine.se 
ideographs  makes  literacy  tests  in  America  look  like  child’s  play 
in  comparison.  And  it  cannot  be  denied  that  the  school  system 
is  one  element  in  Japanese  life  which  makes  a deep  impression 
upon  the  visitor  from  abroad  especially  if  he  has  in  mind  com- 
parisons not  only  between  Japan  and  America  and  Germany 
but  also  between  Japan  and  the  Latin  lands  of  Europe  and 
America.  There  are  few  more  delightful  and  impre.ssive  sights 
than  the  Japanese  school  excursions  where  large  bodies  of  neatly 
dressed,  orderly,  and  happy  faced  children  are  taken  by  their 
teachers,  as  is  a common  practice,  on  .school  excursions  into  the 
country  or  to  visit  important  works  or  famous  places. 

By  far  the  deepest  impression,  however,  made  upon  the  mind 
of  one  who  is  concerned  with  the  higher  life  of  nations  is  the 
enormous  change  in  the  place  and  influence  of  Christianity. 
Eighteen  years  ago  the  leaders  of  the  national  life  in  Japan 
were  proclaiming  that  all  religion  was  superstition  and  that 
from  its  bondage  the  wi.se  man  and  the  strong  nation  would 
emancipate  themselves.  Now  the  same  men  declare  that  the 
moral  life  of  the  nation  should  be  its  chief  concern  and  that 
moral  life  must  rest  upon  religious  foundations.  Then,  the  atti- 
tude of  the  educational  authorities  was  unfavorable  to  all  re- 
ligion except  a politicalized  reconstruction  of  Shintoism  in  the 
interest  of  patriotism  and  it  was  especially  antagonistic  to 
Christianity.  Though  bearing  letters  then  from  the  United 
States  Commissioner  of  Education,  there  was  no  welcome  to 
government  schools  and  an  address  on  Christianity  in  the 
schools  and  under  the  auspices  of  the  school  authorities  was 
practically  unknown.  Now  there  is  a hospitable  welcome  and 
one  has  more  opportunities  to  speak  directly  on  moral  and  re- 
ligious questions,  to  explain  Christianity,  and  the  need  of  men 
and  of  nations  for  what  it  alone  can  do,  than  it  is  possible  to 
embrace.  Within  two  days  after  reaching  Japan  in  the  higher 
technical  and  commercial  schools  of  Osaka  and  Kobe  we  had 
chances  to  speak  to  audiences  of  six  and  seven  hundred  students 
at  meetings  over  which  the  heads  of  these  schools  presided  and 
in  which  one  was  free  to  say  just  what  he  would  say  to  a college 
or  university"  audience  at  home  with  regard  to  personal  and  na- 
tional morality  and  the  Christian  faith.  And  so  far  from  re- 
senting what  was  said,  these  large  bodies  of  students  would 
listen  with  absorbed  interest  and  applaud  to  the  echo. 

The  workers  in  the  towns  and  villages  where  the  great  mass  of 
the  Japanese  people  will  be  found,  testify  to  an  open  door  and 
an  unprecedented  intellectual  accessibility  and  we  had  occasion 
to  see  how  ripe  the  field  is  for  widespread  moral  and  religious 
movements  in  the  great  cities.  The  Japanese  churches  and  the 
missions  from  abroad  are  carrying  on  at  the  present  time  a three- 

308 


year  evangelistic  campaign.  The  campaign  was  in  progress  in 
Osaka  when  we  were  there.  It  was  widely  advertised  through 
the  city  through  one  of  the  great  Japane.se  advertising  agencies, 
the  head  of  which  is  a Christian  man.  Great  meetings  for  men 
and  women  were  held  daily  at  which  hundreds  of  cards  were  re- 
ceived signed  by  tho.se  who  were  ready  to  study  Christianity.  In 
addition  to  the  .student  meetings  which  were  part  of  this  cam- 
paign and  a large  meeting  of  Christian  workers,  we  were  pres- 
ent at  the  evening  mass  meeting  for  business  men.  An  audience 
of  more  than  twelve  hundred  packed  the  hall.  The  first  speaker 
was  Mr.  Morimura,  an  aged  millionarie  business  man  of  Tokyo 
who,  in  his  old  age,  has  accepted  the  Chri.stian  faith  and  is  de- 
voting the  last  years  of  his  life  to  propagating  it.  The  audience 
listened  with  breathle.ss  attention  to  the  venerable  old  man  as  he 
spoke  of  Japan’s  need  of  moral  forces  strong  enough  to  refonn 
the  national  character  and  to  make  Japan  efficient  and  true  and 
.strong  and  to  cut  out  of  the  national  life  the  vices  that  prey 
upon  honor  and  virility.  There  was  only  one  power,  he  declared, 
which  could  meet  Japan’s  need,  the  power  of  God.  He  had  made 
this  discover^'  and  intended  to  give  his  money  and  all  that  he 
had  left  of  life  to  sharing  his  discoveiw  with  his  people.  He  had 
but  few  years  left  to  live  and  he  adjured  the  young  men  to  whom 
he  spoke,  to  take  up  the  work  which  he  must  soon  lay  down.  As 
the  old  man  closed,  bowing  low  over  the  desk,  a great  wave  of 
applause  .swept  over  the  audience.  I spoke  on  Christianity  as  the 
one  great  power  of  unity  and  there  was  no  lack  of  response.  The 
la.st  speaker  was  Mr.  Tsunajima,  who  was  in  America  last  year, 
and  who  spoke  on  the  relations  of  the.  Japanese  problem  in  Cali- 
fornia to  the  future  of  Chri.stianity  in  Japan.  In  the  midst  of 
the  meeting  the  tinkling  of  a little  bell  in  the  street  announced 
the  i.s.sue  of  a newspaper  extra  regarding  the  present  negotia- 
tions between  Japan  and  China.  A copy  of  the  extra,  a little 
sheet  about  the  size  of  a foolscap  page,  was  sent  up  to  the  ])lat- 
form  and  read.  It  stated  briefly  the  firm  attitude  Avhich  Japan 
had  just  taken.  It  was  listened  to  very  temperately  and  while 
the  audience  gave  expression  to  its  approval,  it  was  in  a thor- 
oughly proper  way.  Such  meetings  as  this  one  in  Osaka  are 
being  held  all  over  the  country  and  no  one  need  lack  an  audience 
to  which  to  ])resent  Christ  and  what  Christ  can  do  for  men. 
There  has  been  a long  step  forward  since  1807. 

It  is  ea.sy  of  cour.se  to  err  in  generalizing  from  individual  ex- 
periences but  I think  the  missionaries  would  say  that  such  an 
incident  as  this  has  a really  representative  character.  A young 
man  who  is  not  yet  a convert,  in  an  inland  village,  asked  that 
his  wedding  might  be  performed  with  a Christian  sendee.  The 
wedding  party  came  accordingly  to  the  Hikone  church  Avhere 
the  members  had  prepared  decorations  and  had  assembled  a 
small  group  to  welcome  them.  A Christian  performed  the  cere- 
mon3^  At  the  request  of  the  wedding  party,  another  Christian 
delivered  a sermon  on  Christian  ideals  of  marriage.  The  wed- 

309 


ding  of  these  unbelievers  from  a village  which  has  no  church  be- 
came, by  their  request,  instead  of  the  customary  round  of  drink- 
ing and  feasting,  an  evangelistic  meeting  for  themselves  and 
their  friends. 

Many  other  first  impressions  crowd  upon  one’s  mind  as  he 
comes  back  to  this  interesting  land  again.  There  is  room  here, 
however,  for  but  one  more,  namely,  the  conscious,  recognized 
need  of  the  Christian  Church  in  Japan  for  the  coming  down  of 
a living  fire  out  of  heaven.  The  nation  realizes  its  need  of 
moral  education  and  of  religion  for  the  sake  of  individual  and 
national  efficiency.  Far  and  wide  people  are  ready  to  hear  and 
men  are  qualified  to  preach  the  ethical  message  of  Chri.stianity. 
What  the  strongest  leaders  of  the  churches  now  crave  is  the 
raising  up  of  men  who  can  preach  the  spiritual  supematurali.sm 
of  the  gospel,  who  can  make  the  crucified,  ri.sen  and  ever  living 
Christ  a reality  to  the  soul  of  Japan,  who  can  proclaim  all  that  ' 
St.  Paul  meant  by  the  cro.ss  and  the  resurrection  to  the  deep- 
est heart  of  the  Japanese  people.  The  American  church  has 
three  great  duties  to  Japan  in  this  present  hour.  One  is  to 
send  out  at  once  mis.sionarv'  reinforcements,  both  men  and 
vv'omen,  but  e.'ipecially  men,  for  the  countrv’  evangelistic  work. 
The  second  is  to  throttle  the  wicked  and  un-Christian  talk  of  ' 
the  possibility  of  war  between  two  nations,  our  own,  and  Japan, 
each  of  which  has  no  intention  of  doing  anything  except  what 
is  right.  And  the  third  is  to  pray  as  the  church  has  never  prayed 
before,  that  the  fires  of  God  which  fell  at  Carmel  and  at  Pen- 
tecost, shall  fall  todav  upon  Japan. 

R.  E.  S. 


310 


2.  SECOND  IMPEESSIONS  ON  RE-VISITING  JAPAN 


S.  S.  ‘^Sado  Maru,” 
November  8,  1915. 

At  three  different  times  during  the  last  seven  months  we  have 
had  the  opportunity  of  visiting  Japan,  first,  on  coming  directly 
to  the  East  from  America  by  way  of  Honolulu,  second,  after 
long  trips  in  Siam  and  the  Philippine  Islands,  and  third,  after  a 
visit  to  Korea  and  China.  These  three  opportunities  have  made 
it  pos.sible  to  view  Japan  against  three  different  backgrounds 
and  in  three  different  sets  of  comparisons,  first  with  America 
and  Hawaii,  second  with  the  two  very  similar  and  yet  wholly 
different  conditions  in  Siam  and  the  Philippines,  and  third  with 
Korea,  under  Japanese  administration,  and  with  China,  in  one 
of  the  mo.st  interesting  and  revealing  transition  periods  of  her 
historv’.  It  is  very  interesting  to  reflect  on  the  judgments  which 
each  of  these  three  comparisons  suggests.  I shall  try  here,  how- 
ever, only  to  draw  out  a few  of  the  general  conclusions  sug- 
gested by  tliese  comparisons,  having  regard  especially  to  two 
I)oints,  first,  the  importance  of  Ja])an  and  of  the  evangelization 
of  Japan  in  the  missionary  program  in  the  Far  East,  and  second, 
present  conditions  in  Japanj  afllecting  the  ta.sk  of  Japanese 
evangelization. 

The  net  judgment  with  which  we  come  back  to  America  from 
tlie  experiences  and  observations  of  these  months  is  a judgment 
of  incrensed  respect  for  Japan  and  for  what  she  has  achieved 
and  a deepened  confidence  in  flie  worthy  and  better  elements  of 
Jaj)anese  life  and  cliaracter.  There  are  circles  both  in  the  Ea.st 
and  in  the  West  in  which  it  is  almost  as  much  as  a man’s  life  is 
worth  to  expre.ss  .such  a judgment  as  this,  so  deep  is  the  feeling 
of  racial  distrust  of  the  Jaj)anese  and  of  .susj)icion  of  their  ])oliti- 
cal  and  commercial  ambitions.  Many  times  during  this  trij)  Ave 
have  been  startled  at  the  intensity  of  this  feeling  as  Ave  have 
encountere<l  it  at  ditferent  points  in  the  East. 

No  one  can  complain  of  fair  and  discriminating  judgments 
Avhich  may  be  formed  and  expres.sed  regarding  any  race.  AVhat 
frightens  one,  hoAveA’er,  in  much  of  the  prejudice  against  the 
Jaj)ane.se  which  he  meets  is  its  unfairness  and  its  lack  of  dis- 
crimination. Cour.ses  of  action  pursued  by  America  or  Great 
Pritain  or  Germany  are  viewed  and  judged  in  an  entireh"  dif- 
ferent light  from  similar  courses  of  action  j)ursued  by  Japan. 
Ju.st  actions  of  Avestern  governments  are  seen  through  a haze  of 
national  apotheosis  Avhile  similar  conduct  on  Japan’s  part  is 
deemed  a matter  of  mere  i)olitical  ex[)ediency  or  a cover  of  sin- 
ister purposes,  while  Avrong  done  by  Avestern  nations  is  condoned 
or  lamented  Avith  soft  judgments  and  Japan’s  Avrongdoings  are 
mercilessly  condemned  and  generalized  into  a revelation  of 

311 


the  real  character  of  the  race.  But  wrong  and  right  are  not 
affected  by  degree.s  of  longtitude  and  evil  or  unworthy  actions 
on  the  part  of  the  Japanese  race  or  nation  ought  to  l>e  judged 
on  precisely  the  same  basis  on  which  a western  race  or  nation 
would  be  judged,  unless  indeed  the  latter  might  be  held  to  a 
stricter  accountability  because  of  the  fuller  light  against  which 
they  offend.  All  this  is  surely  obvious  enough  to  the  healthy 
moral  sense,  but  it  is  exceedingly  difficult  to  remember  it  amid 
the  heat  and  confusion  of  our  present  racial  movements. 

Whoever  will  seek  to  view  the  Far  East  with  an  impartial 
mind  today  and  who  may  have  such  opportunities  for  comparison 
as  we  have  had  will,  I think,  be  imjiressed  anew  with  the  sig- 
nificance of  the  history'  which  Japan  has  made.  Alone  thus  far 
of  the  Asiatic  nations  she  has  sIiovti  herself  capable  of  actually 
mastering  and  absorbing  the  principles  of  efficiency  and  progrefw 
which  lie  behind  the  modem  world.  There  are  still  those  who 
say  that  this  is  only  imitation  and  who  hold  to  Mr.  Meredith 
Townsend’s  old  thesis  tliat  the  East  is  capable  of  galvanic  mimi- 
cry but  not  of  organic  regeneration  or  a new  life.  But  Mr.  Tovm- 
send’s  theory  was  an  impossible  attempt  to  deny  to  living  men 
the  functions  of  life,  and  histor}*  has  ridiculed  it.  And  as  to 
imitation,  it  is  enough  to  ask  how  much  originality  there  is  in 
the  world?  We  see  now  that  the  originality  of  individuals  is 
only  the  la.st  outcropping  of  some  long-developed  stratum  in  hu- 
manity and  that  generalizations  of  raciql  originality  which  con- 
ceive only  of  race  strain  as  their  explanation  are  untrue.  In 
the  case  of  the  Japanese  it  is  clear  that  the  new  civilization  has 
not  been  merely  imitated  but  has  been  intelligently  and  vitally 
ab.sorbed  as  no  other  Asiatic  nation  has  yet  absorb^  it.  A Jap- 
anese steamship  is  sufficient  illustration  and  proof.  To  build  a 
huge  ocean-going  vessel,  manufacturing  every  part  of  it  except 
the  steel  plates,  constructing  and  operating  it,  keeping  it  spot- 
lessly clean  and  all  its  mechanism  in  the  highest  state  of  efficiency, 
and  maintaining  steadily  the  standards  of  fidelity  and  accuracy 
by  which  alone  these  things  can  be  done,  all  this  is  no  mere  work 
of  imitation  and  it  is  a thing  which  the  Japanese  alone  of  Asi- 
atic peoples  have  accomplished.  Perhaps  an  even  better  illus- 
tration, however,  is  found  in  the  selective  principle  which  has 
guided  the  progre.ss  of  .Japan  in  the  last  twenty  years.  In  writ- 
ing home  last  spring  of  first  impressions  on  re-visiting  .Japan 
I spoke  of  the  apparent  lack  of  outward  changes.  That  impres- 
sion would  need  to  be  modified  now.  Tokyo  shows  in  its  archi- 
tectural and  railway  development  great  changes  which  were  not 
so  perceptible  elsewhere.  But  it  would  need  to  be  modified  in 
a yet  more  vital  respect.  I see  now  that  there  have  been  im- 
mense changes  in  .Japan  but  that  they  have  been  of  the  kind  to 
secure  and  carry  forward  the  changes  already  made  and  that  the 
nation  has  been  wise  enough  to  choose  first  to  make  such  changes 
as  these  rather  than  to  go  off  on  the  sky-larking  enterprises  into 
which  some  of  the  other  Asiatic  lands  have  been  lured.  If  this 

312 


wisdom  on  Japan’s  part  has  been  unconscious  it  is  only  the 
clearer  evidence  that  the  new  civilization  has  been  integrally 
absorbed  and  not  merely  externally  applied.  Against  the  back- 
ground of  what  the  other  Asiatic  nations  have  as  yet  done  or 
failed  to  do,  Japan’s  achievement  in  this  matter  stands  out  as 
something  which  should  be  heartily  and,  for  reasons  of  which  I 
shall  speak  later,  gratefully  recognized. 

Furthermore,  after  what  one  has  seen  of  the  struggle  for  or 
with  civilization  in  other  Asiatic  lands  and  of  the  danger  of 
attempting  to  make  transitions  by  breaches  and  over  chasms, 
or  the  necessity  of  attempting  this  method  instead  of  the  method 
of  orderly  evolution,  one  appreciates  Japan’s  success  in  having 
moved  over  from  the  old  to  the  new  with  so  little  rupture  under 
such  competent  and  on  the  whole  such  wise  leadership  and  with- 
out the  loss  of  her  own  racial  tradition  and  integrity.  The  new 
has  been  grafted  on  to  the  old  not  without  blunders  and  some 
misshapen  consequences,  but  in  the  main  with  wonderful  skill 
and  success.  Jai>an  has  done  better  than  any  of  the  other  Asi- 
atic nations  in  pre.serving  good  manners  through  such  a transi- 
tion. It  is  pitiful  in  some  of  the  eastern  lands  to  see  how  fully 
the  old  etiquette  and  courtesy  have  pas.sed  away  without  the  ac- 
quisition of  such  good  manners  as  we  may  still  have  left  in  the 
West.  It  would  be  too  much  to  expect  that  the  instinct  of  any 
race  in  such  a time  of  change  would  be  able  to  discriminate  in- 
fallibly between  the  things  to  keep  and  the  things  to  let  go,  and 
Japan  is  holding  still  to  .some  of  her  old  traditions  which  she 
must  transcend,  but  she  ought  to  be  judged  charitably  if  she 
holds  to  them  a little  too  long.  What  can  a nation  build  on  ex- 
cept its  past?  The  pre.sent  history  of  Siam  shows  how  ditticult 
it  is  to  build  up  a seii.se  of  national  per.sonality  without  a living 
histoi*}’.  Even  the  obtrusiveness  of  the  Japanese  consciousness 
has  something  to  commend  it  to  one  who  conies  to  it  from  peo- 
ples in  whom  there  is  no  such  consciousness  or  with  whom  it 
has  no  fibre  or  substance. 

By  grafting  the  new  civilization  on  her  own  racial  life  Japan 
has  rendered  a great  service  to  the  Avhole  of  Asia.  It  is  of  course 
true  that  the  jirocess  has  not  been  a perfect  one.  Everj’  living 
experience  of  this  kind  is  .sure  to  be  mixed  with  crudities  both 
of  spirit  and  of  form.  AVho  should  realize  this  better  than  we  in 
our  own  new  laud?  But  just  as  America  set  an  example  of  in- 
spiration and  of  hojie  to  the  jieojiles  of  the  West,  so  Japan  has 
(lone  to  the  peoples  of  tlie  Ea.st.  They  were  in  danger  of  slowly 
.sinking  into  a sense  of  racial  incajiacity,  surrendering  the  hope 
that  they  could  ever  take  a full  place  amid  the  serving,  work- 
ing, forward-moving  nations.  Such  a despair  as  this  was  itself 
sure  to  create  its  own  justification.  And  the  strong  nations 
have  not  been  free  from  the  error  of  schooling  the  backward 
nations  into  the  idea  of  their  own  incajiacity  nor  has  the  mis- 
sionarj'  enterprise  e.scajied  from  this  reproach.  But  to  treat 
either  men  or  nations  as  incapable  of  the  highest  is  to  disqualify 

313 


them  for  the  highest.  AVe  educate  our  own  children  by  encour- 
aging the  sense  of  caj)aci1y  in  them  and  tlie  great  ne^  of  the 
Asiatic  peoples  today  is  that  they  should  1k^  steadily  heartene<l 
to  believe  that  God  has  as  honorable  and  worthy  work  for  them 
to  do  as  for  any  others.  Japan’s  example  has  given  such  a heart- 
ening as  this  to  all  the  Asiatic  peoples. 

If  to  the  hope  and  insj)iration  of  her  example  Japan  could 
add  influences  which  would  win  the  love  and  confidence  and 
good  will  of  the  Asiatic  peoples  the  service  which  she  might 
render  to  Asia  and  to  the  Avorld  would  he  unlimite<l.  But  as 
one  travels  about  through  A.sia  he  finds  that  while  Japan  is 
admired,  she  is  also  feared.  The  other  Asiatic  people  complain 
tliat  the  Ja])anese  are  j)roud  and  overbearing,  that  they  are  .seek- 
ing not  to  befriend  and  to  guide  but  to  overpower  and  dominate, 
to  secure  and  monopolize  the  markets,  to  promote  the  interests 
of  Japan  alone  and  not  to  guard  Asia  for  the  people  of  Asia  or 
to  seek  the  nobler  end  of  fostering  the  brotherhood  and  unity  of 
all  mankind.  If  Japan  could  break  down  the.se  suspicions  and 
free  herself  from  all  the  influences  which  jiistify  fhem  and  give 
her  leader.ship  un.selfishly  fo  the  Asiatic  peoples  it  would  be  the 
beginning  of  a new  day.  It  is  easy,  of  cour.se,  for  Japan  to  point 
to  Euro])e  and  also  to  the  western  hemisphere  and  to  ask  wheth- 
er she  can  be  expected  to  Avin  a leadership  of  love  and  embark 
on  a mission  of  benevolence  in  Asia  when  no  other  nation  has 
been  able  to  do  it  or  to  persuade  its  neighlmrs  that  it  was  .seek- 
ing to  do  it  elsewhere.  Such  an  answer  is  easy  and  silencing  but 
it  is  also  the  surrender  of  the  highest  and  noblest  mission  which 
Japan  could  have,  a ini.ssion  AAdio.se  acceptance  would  give  her 
a glory  greater  than  any  of  which  she  has  dreamed  and  than 
any  other  nation  has  attained. 

Only  religion  will  CA^er  be  able  to  inspire  ambitions  like  these 
in  the  heart  of  a nation  and  the  old  religions  of  Japan  can 
neither  give  men  such  inspiration  nor  even  produce  the.se  con- 
ceptions in  their  minds.  Shintoi.sm  is  in  the  narrowest  sen.se 
nationalistic  and  for  purposes  of  nationalism  even  is  now  only 
a shadowy  and  receding  force.  Its  ritual  is  filling  a large  place 
in  the  coronation  ceremonies  but  it  is  a mere  shell  for  depart- 
ing ideas  not  umvisely  preserved,  perhaps,  until  new  and  living 
ideas  have  more  adequately  taken  the  place  of  the  old.  The 
Shinto  shrines  are  kept  in  good  repair  and  to  many  of  them  in 
the  holy  places  the  people  still  throng,  but  it  is  often  with  sim- 
ply a holiday  purpose  or  as  a rite  of  patriotism  or  with  a re- 
ligious longing  which  would  turn  as  readily  to  an  image  of 
Buddha  or  to  some  symbol  of  animism.  Buddhism  itself,  broken 
into  scores  of  sect.s,  actiA’e  in  its  propaganda,  has  its  huge  tem- 
ples and  its  millions  of  adherents,  but  it  has  been  badly  dam- 
aged by  notorious  financial  dishonesty  in  its  chief  shrine,  it  can- 
not without  logical  contradiction  fit  itself  to  the  needs  of  a 
modern  society,  and  in  its  effort  to  do  so  is  appropriating  more 
and  more  of  Christian  truth.  One  is  impressed  ineAutably  by 

314 


the  splendor  of  the  temples  and  the  multitudes  of  people  throng- 
ing about  them,  but  I think  that  two  things  are  true  and  need 
to  be  kept  in  mind  when  we  are  told  of  the  activity  and  popu- 
larity of  Japanese  Buddhism.  One  is  that  the  cleanness  and 
good  repair  of  the  temples  in  Japan  as  compared  with  the 
squalor  and  neglect  of  the  temples  in  so  many  other  parts  of 
Asia  may  be  due  not  to  any  special  strength  of  Buddhism  but 
merely  to  the  fact  that  everything  is  kept  iip  better  in  Japan 
than  in  other  Asiatic  countries.  And  the  second  is  that  certainly 
the  idea  of  amu.^^ement  and  recreation  is  more  and  more  cluster- 
ing about  the  temples  drawing  greater  crowds  to  the  vicinity  of 
the  temples  but  al.so  weakening  and  too  often  degrading  the  old 
religious  sensibilities.  The  best  known  of  the  Tokyo  temples  i.s, 
tenfold  more  now  than  it  was  twenty  years  ago,  the  center  of 
the  amusement  and  immorality  of  the  city. 

The  processes  of  national  education  to  which  Jqpan  whole- 
heartedly committed  herself  a generation  and  more  ago  have 
wrought  uj)on  the  nation  with  penetrating  and  far-extended  in- 
fluence. They  have  made  a nation  of  readers.  At  the  ricksha 
stands  the  coolies  read  together  while  they  wait.  Messenger 
boys  have  their  books  in  their  ])Ockets  to  read  as  they  push  their 
carts  along  the  roads.  It  is  claimed  that  more  books  are  pub- 
lished and  sold  in  Japan  now  each  year  than  in  Germany.  For 
half  a mile  in  one  .street  in  Tokyo  bookstalls,  with  new  and  sec- 
ond-hand book.s,  line  the  .street  on  either  side.  The  press,  exceed- 
ing in  irresj)()iisibility,  in  lack  of  historical  per.spective,  in  so- 
briety, in  any  consciousness  of  the  i)erils  of  its  power  even  our 
yellow  press  at  home,  if  that  be  possible,  finds  in  all  this  mass 
of  common  men  who  are  now  able  to  read  a held  where  tire 
can  run  as  over  a j)rairie.  In  the  .schools  all  classes  meet  togeth- 
er and  in  the  democracy  of  their  fellowship  and  of  the  truth 
which  they  are  taught  forces  are  at  work  which  mu.st  slowly 
develop  a new  Jajtan  and  which  will  need  the  wisest  guidance,  if 
wise  guides  can  be  found  to  sticceed  the  few  survivors  of  the  old 
men  who  have  Iwl  Jaj)an  so  successfully  along  her  amazing  wav. 
To  all  these  influences  must  be  added  the  equalizing  influence  of 
modem  industriali.sm  and  of  military  con.scriptiou.  Of  tho.se 
who  think  the  Japanese  a militaristic  and  war-loving  people  it 
would  be  interesting  to  ask  an  exi)lanation  of  the  universal  di.s- 
like  of  military  service  and  of  the  efforts  .specially  of  the  stu- 
dent class  by  any  device  to  escape  from  conscription. 

One  of  the  things  which  imi)re.s.ses  one  def'ply  as  he  comes  to 
Japan  from  the  Pliilippine  Islands  or  China  is  the  tightness,  the 
constriction,  the  close  knit  organization  of  life  in  Japan.  In 
spite  of  the  licens(‘  of  the  press  th(*re  is  still  a check  upon  free 
exj)re.ssion.  Jai»anese  will  often  lower  their  voices  as  they  refer 
to  some  ])olitical  or  religious  subject.  In  the  IMiili])pines,  on 
the  other  band,  there  is  something  of  the  free  and  open  air  of 
home.  All  life  and  thought  seem  to  have  come  out  into  a spring 
time  and  there  is  a thrill  and  sen.se  of  buovant  libertv.  In  China 

315 


there  is  more  of  this  same  freedom  and  daring  of  utterance. 
Economically,  and  socially  also,  Japan  seems  to  be  completely 
set  together,  the  paths  to  employment  are  clearly  define<l,  the 
whole  organization  seems  to  be  more  nearly  finished,  with  less 
room  for  free  play,  for  initiative,  for  innovation.  The  Japanese 
themselves  are  beginning  to  feel  this  deeply  and  are  attributing 
some  of  it  to  the  rigidity  of  their  educational  mechanism.  The 
great  body  of  alumni  of  the  different  private  universities  resent 
the  privileges  of  the  Imperial  Fniversity  caste  and  now  that  the 
head  of  one  of  these  universities  is  Prime  Minister  and  its  Dean, 
Mini.ster  of  Education,  what  might  be  called  educational  liber- 
ali.sm  is  raising  its  hand  again.st  the  routinism  of  the  educational 
absolutists  who  have  controlled  the  whole  school  .system  of  the 
nation.  Many  are  arguing  that  the  traditional  .system  has  .sim- 
ply bred  specialized  men,  that  the  nation  needs  a great  bod}'  of 
men  more  freeh’  educated  and  breathing  an  ampler  air,  that  there 
.should  be  more  flexibility  of  mind  and  life,  a release  from  the 
overpreci.sion  and  bureaucracy  of  the  past.  The  Japanese  are 
instinctively  an  orderly,  rule-obeying  people  and  their  effort  at 
transition  from  a social  mind  in  which  the}'  have  been  clamped 
together  objectively,  so  to  speak,  by  the  bonds  of  a highly  or- 
ganized order,  to  a new  social  crystallization  of  self-directed, 
freely-choosing  individuals,  is  one  of  the  most  intere.sting  situa- 
tions in  racial  p.sycholog}'  that  can  be  conceived. 

Everywhere  through  .Tapanese  life  great  changes  are  taking 
place,  some  of  them  subtle  and  scarcely  di.sceriml  but  taking 
effect  slowly  and  resistle.ssly,  others  of  them  quite  obvious. 
Among  these  we  rejoice  most,  of  course,  in  the  evidence  of  the 
steady  gain  of  Christianity  and  the  altered  attitude  of  the  nation 
toward  it.  Evenbody  notes  the  ease  with  which  Chrisianity 
can  secure  a hearing  anywhere,  in  chiirche.s,  or  schools,  or  public 
halls  or  even  in  Buddhist  monasteries.  The  secular  newspapers 
are  reporting  now  not  only  religious  meetings  where  the  dis- 
cussions have  had  a semi-political  ca.st,  but  purely  evangelistic 
services  as  well.  An  Engli.sh  paper  in  Tokyo  printed  the  ac- 
count of  the  Emperor’s  birthday  with  a small  caption  and  im- 
mediately under  it  with  bolder  capitals  and  in  longer  space  an 
account  of  the  death  of  Dr.  Thompson,  one  of  the  older  mission- 
aries. A few  years  ago  it  would  not  have  been  thought  appro- 
priate to  overshadow  with  any  other  news  a reference  to  the 
Emperor’s  birthday  ceremonies,  least  of  all  with  an  account  of 
a missionary.  And  never  were  Japanese  Christians  bolder  in 
telling  their  nation  what  it  needs  and  where  what  it  needs  can 
be  found.  This  is  the  way  Dr.  Uzawa.  an  elder  in  the  Church  of 
Christ  in  Japan,  a leading  la^-}'er  of  Tokyo,  and  a member  of 
Parliament,  stated  the  case  in  a published  article,  “Does  Japan 
Need  Christianity?”  “The  main  reason  why  Japan  needs  Chris- 
tianity is  to  cast  out  her  devils.  There  are  some  among  us  who 
fancy  they  have  no  devils  to  be  exorcised  of,  but  they  are  much 
mistaken.  Even  those  who  pretend  to  be  sinless  and  pure  are 

316 


none  too  good  for  Christianity.  Buddhism  has  taught  us  that 
when  we  think,  devils  enter  through  our  thoughts ; when  we  read, 
they  enter  through  our  mouths ; when  we  pray,  they  enter  through 
the  crown  of  the  head ; and  thus  evil  spirits  take  advantage  of 
everything  we  do,  to  get  into  us  somehow ; so  that  all  our  deeds 
are  more  or  less  influenced  by  evil.  But  through  Christianity  come 
in  the  spirits  of  good  to  defend  the  ego  and  prevent  its  defeat. 
Christianity  is  the  white  corpuscle  to  protect  the  soul’s  blood, 
and  consequently  the  whole  man,  from  evil  spiritiial  influences ; it 
supplies  the  phogocytes  before  which  malign  spirits  flee.  With- 
out a religion  of  the  right  kind  man  is  exposed  and  hopelessly  at 
odds  with  his  environment.  Will  those  among  us,  who  fancy 
they  can  do  without  religion,  affirm  that  we  Japanese  are  as 
kind  as  we  ought  to  be,  or  that  we  are  as  thoughtful  and  serious 
as  becomes  a people  with  a great  destiny?  The  Buddhists  of  the 
Zen  text  invite  us  to  go  to  the  central  temple  and  learn  to  re- 
turn to  our  true  selves ; but  the  true  self  in  most  of  us  is  so 
marred  and  maimed  that  it  is  hardly  worth  returning  to.  For 
most  people  the  true  self  is  completely  gone,  and  only  Christ 
can  restore  it  whole. 

“Some  will  say  that  I talk  like  a pleader,  and  that  I so  speak 
because  I am  a Christian.  Well,  I can  hardly  do  otherwise.  I 
have  been  a Christian  for  twenty  years,  admittedly  a verv"  im- 
perfect one;  but  1 owe  so  much  to  Christianity  that  I can  hardly 
be  expected  to  do  otherwise  than  plead  for  it.  When  I say  what 
this  religion  can  do  for  a man,  T speak  out  of  the  .seriousness  and 
fullness  of  my  own  experience. 

“The  Japan  of  today  is  absorbed  by  abounding  ambition;  she 
is  no  longer  content  to  remain  an  island  empire;  her  career  is  to 
be  continental  and  her  future  worldwide.  No  such  ambition  can 
ever  be  realized  without  the  wi.se  guidance  and  firm  faith  which 
Christianity  gives.  No  nation  can  make  a universal  appeal  with- 
out the  ins])iration  of  a univer.sal  religion.  Tho.se  among  us  who 
imagine,  as  is  often  asserted,  that  modem  .science  has  eaten  into 
the  vitals  of  Christianity  like  a canker  are  greatly  mistaken.  Sci- 
ence has  never  undertaken  to  prove,  nor  can  it  prove,  tliat  Christ 
cannot  .save.  That  man  cannot  attain  unto  Ms  best  without  re- 
ligion is  tlie  teaching  of  all  religions  as  well  as  of  Christianity; 
but  the  latter  is  the  one  power  that  has  enabled  men  to  come  un- 
to their  best.  Tt  is  the  only  force  capable  of  assisting  us  to  over- 
come the  counteracting  gravitation  of  evil.  Before  its  light  and 
I)ower  the  darkness  and  doubt  of  insistent  pessimism  disappear. 
If  the  world  is  today  less  pessimistic  than  it  was,  the  improve- 
ment is  largely  due  lo  Christ.  Two  or  three  hundred  years  ago 
pessimi.sm  hung  like  a pall  over  the  human  spirit.  The  Budd- 
hi.sm  of  the  IMamaknra  period  taught  that  this  was  the  worst  of 
all  possible  worlds,  a i)lace  of  torment  and  affliction,  a veritable 
hell,  and  that  the  only  hope  of  happiness  lay  beyond;  the  aim  of 
life  was  to  attain  buddhahood  and  reach  Nirvana.  The  spirit  seems 
to  have  been  worldwide,  for  Christianity,  too,  had  to  pass  through 

SIT 


the  same  stage.  Paradise  was  either  in  the  distant  past  or  in 
the  unseen  future.  But  under  llie  influence  of  Christianity  the 
luimaii  mind  ha.s  so  far  developed  and  brightened  that  men  now 
look  for  paradise  on  this  earth,  where  nature  is  being  fast  con- 
quered and  made  to  jdeld  all  the  delights  that  man  can  enjoy.  It 
is  only  the  irreligious  that  today  have  fear.  They  doubt  whether 
nature  is  yet  conquered.  In  Tokyo  the  new.spajiers  that  tell 
fortunes  sell  best.  Multitudes  are  still  away  back  in  the  age 
when  nature  Avas  man’s  master,  and  the  earth  a fearful  place  to 
dwell  in.  But  the  sj)iritually  enlightened  know  better.  Chris- 
tianity has  taught  them  that  heaven  is  where  Christ  is,  and  He 
is  everyAAdiere  that  man  will  recei\"e  Him.  I am  convinced,  there- 
fore, that  no  nation  can  successfully  entertain  AA'orldAvide  hopes 
and  ambitions  without  the  help  of  the  Christian  religion.  This 
conviction  has  groAvn  upon  me  more  and  more  during  the  last 
tAventy  years,  and  I am  extremely  solicitous  that  my  countrA'men 
should  make  no  mistake  about  it;  for  no  mistake  could  be  more 
fatal  either  to  the  individual  or  to  the  nation.  Both  in  my  ex- 
perience as  a laAA-yer  and  as  a member  of  the  Imperial  Diet,  I 
have  been  confirmed  in  my  conviction  ever  more  and  more.  If  I 
have  been  able  to  do  more  for  myself  and  my  country  than  the 
young  men  who  went  to  school  Avith  me  and  had  the  same  chances 
in  life,  it  has  been  due  to  the  help  that  Christianity  has  given  me. 
This  religion  has  giA'en  me  a spiritual  courage  that  ha.s  carried 
me  triumphantly  through  many  an  adver.sity.  Our  country  is 
vei*y  succe.ssful  at  producing  criminals  and  incorrigible  youth. 
Why  not  now  welcome  an  influence  that  will  make  men?  MTien 
I consider  all  that  my  countiw  has  yet  to  do  before  coming  to 
her  own,  I tremble  to  think  of  her  undertaking  it  with  her  oaati 
strength.  The  defects  of  our  education  and  our  social  life  are 
patent  to  all.  We  have  to  spend  the  greater  part  of  our  early 
life  obtaining  an  education,  and  then  shortly  after  its  comple- 
tion we  retire  from  life’s  activity.  Our  system  seems  to  be  in- 
tended for  those  who  expect  to  live  to  the  age  of  about  125  years 
and  is  therefore  unsuitable  to  us,  with  the  possible  exception  of 
Count  Okuma.  .Te.sus  Christ,  in  his  short  life  of  33  years,  and 
with  no  university  education,  did  more  for  mankind  than  a 
whole  nation  can  do.  Why?  Simply  becau.sje  His  was  the  un- 
conquerable spirit  of  the  Divine,  a spirit,  that  every  man  and 
every  nation  may  have,  if  there  be  the  will.  Nearly  everything 
that  is  international  and  humane  in  modem  life  originated  with 
Christianity.  Our  hospitals,  our  Bed  Cross  societies,  our  inter- 
national jurisprudence,  our  rescue  work  among  the  poor  and  un- 
fortunate, our  education,  and  the  general  enlightenment  of  the 
world,  all  is  but  a combined  reflection  of  the  life  of  Jesus  Christ.- 
Through  Him  alone  haA^e  we  any  hope  of  creating  a paradise  on 
earth,  and  making  ourselves  a people  of  permanence  and  great 
national  destiny.” 

This  is  the  same  lawA'er  who  recently,  arguing  in  behalf  of  a 
man  Avho  had  committed  murder  and  who,  as  the  jailors  had 

318 


recognized,  had  been  touched  and  changed  hy  the  influence  of 
the  gospel,  boldly  appealed  for  the  life  of  his  client  on  the  ground 
that  a new  principle  had  come  into  his  life,  that  he  was  no  longer 
the  old  man  who  had  committed  the  crime  but  had  now  been 
made  a new  man  and  he  openlj^  in  court  explained  to  the  judge 
the  fundamental  principle  of  Christianity  and  that  process  of 
redemption  by  which  Jesus  Christ,  entering  a man’s  life,  trans- 
forms his  character  and  gives  him  a power  of  victory  over  sin 
that  enables  him  to  live  by  the  strength  of  God  a new  and  pure 
life. 

Thousands  of  men  in  Japanese  society  who  are  not  prepared 
themselves  to  test  the  Christian  faith  by  personal  surrender  and 
make  their  own  lives  the  gateway  for  the  entrance  of  its  power 
upon  the  life  of  Japan  are  nevertheless  quite  candid  in  their 
declaration  that  it  is  this  power  which  Japan  needs  in  the  strange 
days  which  have  come  upon  her  wherein  the  old  paths  have 
faded  away  and  the  old  lights  flickered  out,  and  when  the  nation 
neefls  to  find  the  highway  of  truth  ou  which  the  Light  of  the 
World  is  shining.  Heaw\-  is  the  responsibility  which  those  men 
assume  Avhetlier  in  Japan  or  in  America  who  talk  of  Avar  or  the 
po.ssibility  of  war  in  an  hour  like  this  when  the  whole  mind  and 
heart  of  the  nation  need  to  be  fixed  upon  the  deep,  spiritual  prob- 
lems of  her  own  life  and  her  great  duty  as  the  friend  and  helper 
of  her  neighboring  peoples. 

K.  E.  S. 


319 


3.  OUR  WORK  WITH  CHRIST  AND  WITH  THE  CHURCH 
OF  CHRIST  IN  JAPAN 


S.  S.  “Sado  Maru,” 
Nov.  5,  1915. 

Our  happy  vi.sit  to  our  missions  in  the  Far  East  came  to  an 
end  in  Tokyo  on  ^Monday,  Nov.  1st,  with  a mingled  touch  of  sor- 
row and  of  joy,  of  sorrow  because  on  the  preceding  Friday  our 
oldest  missionary'  worker  in  Japan,  the  Rev.  David  Thompson, 
D.D.,  had  passed  away,  of  joy  because  in  behalf  of  the  Board  and 
the  church  at  home  we  could  be  present  to  share  in  honoring 
the  memory'  and  thanking  God  for  the  career  of  a good  and  use- 
ful and  nobly  humble  man.  Dr.  Thompson  was  the  first  clerical 
missionary'  to  be  sent  to  Japan  by  our  church.  Dr.  Hepburn  who 
preceded  him  having  been  a physician.  At  the  time  of  his  death 
he  was  the  second  oldest  mis.sionary  in  the  country.  Dr.  James 
H.  Ballagh  being  the  oldest.  Dr.  Thompson  came  to  Japan  in 
1863  from  a pastorate  in  Pittsburgh,  and  his  life  covered  the 
whole  of  the  Meiji  era  and  saw  the  beginnings  of  the  present 
era  of  Taisho.  He  was  a firm  believer  in  the  unity  and  indepen- 
dence of  the  church  in  Japan  and  in  the  early  years  when  ideals 
like  these  had  not  yet  l)een  accepted  by  the  churches  at  home  he 
stood  ready  to  make  and  did  make  sacrifice  even  of  his  personal 
support  in  advocacy  of  his  principles.  He  had  the  joy  of  seeing 
the.se  principles  soon  accepted  and  watched  during  his  long  life 
the  great  growth  of  the  united  church  which  he  had  helped  to 
found.  He  was  a man  of  fearless  character,  a good  Chinese  and 
Japanese  scholar,  respected  and  tnisted  by  everyone  and  bearing 
testimony  by  the  simplicity  and  modesty  of  his  spirit  to  the  truth 
of  his  gospel.  Mrs.  Thompson  gave  me  his  last  message  spoken 
just  before  he  slipped  away  into  the  eternal  peace.  “You  know,” 
said  he,  “that  next  Sunday  Mr.  Speer  is  to  take  luncheon  here. 
Please  be  sure  to  tell  him  that  the  two  chapels  are  doing  good 
work  and  that  everything  is  encouraging  and  that  the  two  Jap- 
anese ministers  are  faithful  and  gro'W'ing  men.  But  do  not  .say  it 
in  a boasting  way.”  This  had  been  his  spirit  always  and  had 
given  him  the  affection  and  confidence  of  all  who  knew  him.  The 
funeral  .seiwice  was  held  at  the  Shin  Sakae  church  in  Tokyo 
which  he  had  founded,  the  oldest  church  in  the  city  and  the  sec- 
ond oldest  church  in  Japan,  and  the  church  was  full  of  men  and 
women,  chiefly'  Japanese,  who  had  come  to  reverence  his  memory. 

Thanks  to  the  foresight  and  the  Christian  spirit  and  judgment 
of  men  like  Thompson  and  Hepburn  and  Ballagh  and  Brown  and 
Verbeck  the  work  of  all  the  Presbyterian  and  Reformed  chiirches 
in  Japan  is  one  work  with  a thorough  understanding  as  to  terri- 
torial occupation  and  with  .some  real  unity  of  plan  in  the  insti- 
tutional work  of  the  missions.  The  absolute  union  of  all  the  fruit- 

320 


a^e  of  the  missions  in  the  Nihon  Kirisuto  Kyokai,  or  the  Church 
of  Christ  in  Japan,  and  the  trust  which  the  missions  have  one 
of  another  make  it  possible  to  interlace  their  work  without  too 
sharp  territorial  divisions.  The  islands  of  Kyushu  and  Shikoku 
are  cared  for  respectively  by  the  Dutch  Keformed  and  Southern 
Presbyterian  Missions,  although  we  have  a station  on  Shikoku 
at  Matsuyama  across  the  Inland  Sea  from  Hiroshima.  Most  of 
our  work,  however,  is  on  the  main  island  of  Hondo  from  Tokyo 
soiithward.  North  of  Tokyo  the  German  Eeformed  Mission  'car- 
ries on  its  strong  work  in  Sendai  as  a center  and  north  of  that 
are  further  stations  of  the  Dutch  Eeformed  Mission  and  then 
on  the  northern  island  of  the  Hokkaido  our  own  missionaries  are 
found  again  in  this  frontier  and  pioneer  section  of  Japan. 

I have  had  the  pleasure  now  on  this  and  the  previous  visit  to 
Japan  of  seeing  all  of  our  stations  except  Matsuyama  and  the 
stations  in  the  Hokkaido.  It  will  be  pos.sible  only  lightly  to 
sketch  their  work  in  this  letter  for  tlie  sake  of  the  man}'^  friends 
at  home  who  are  interested  in  what  the  Japan  Mission  is  doing 
in  one  of  the  most  attractive  and  important  mission  fields  in  the 
world. 

At  the  extreme  southwesteni  comer  of  the  main  island  of 
Japan  is  our  new  station  of  Shimonoseki.  A great  deal  of  the 
importance  of  Nagasaki  has  been  transferred  to  Shimonoseki 
and  to  its  si.ster  city,  Moji,  lying  across  the  narrow  strait  which 
is  the  western  gateway  of  the  Inland  Sea.  Here  on  a beautiful 
site  overlooking  the  bay  and  visible  from  all  the  steamers  passing 
through  stands  the  beautiful  new  girls’  school  formed  by  the 
union  and  transfer  of  Sturges  Seminary  of  the  Eeformed  church 
in  Nagasaki  and  oui-  own  gii-ls’  school  in  Yaniaguchi.  The  main 
building  bears  a tablet  in  memory  of  Mr.  Kennedy  whose  bequest 
made  possible  our  share  in  this  enterprise.  Wherever  we  have 
gone  on  this  trij)  we  have  met  with  the  evidences  of  Mr.  Ken- 
nedy’s and  Mr.  Severance’s  interest  and  generosity.  One  can- 
not think  of  any  other  investments  that  can  exceed  in  fruitful- 
ne.ss  and  influence  the  investments  which  they  have  made  in 
scores  of  ceutei-s  throughout  the  Far  East.  East  of  Shimonoseki 
along  the  northern  coast  of  the  Inland  Sea  are  our  evangelistic 
.stations  of  Yainaguchi,  Hiroshima  and  Kure  with  millions  of 
people  in  the.se  provinces,  or  ken,  entirely  accessible  in  the  towns 
and  country  villages  and  offering  as  attractive  and  appealing  a 
field  as  a young  man  can  find  anywhere  for  the  richest  use  of  his 
life. 

Turning  north  at  Kobe,  where  the  southern  Pi'esbyterians  have 
a useful  training  school  for  i)x-eachers  and  where  the  Congre- 
gationalists  have  a fine  institution  for  women  and  the  Canadian 
and  southern  ^Methodists,  in  union,  one  of  the  best  educational 
institutions  in  .lai)an  for  young  men,  one  conies  to  Osaka,  the 
great  manufacturing  city  of  .lapaii,  with  its  factory  conditions 
and  industrial  i»roblems  rivaling  those  of  our  congested  western 
factory  communities.  Here  our  mission  has  a Bible  institute  for 

321 


11— Report  ol  Deputation. 


training  evangelists  under  the  efficient  care  of  Dr.  Fulton  and 
Dr.  A.  D.  Hail.  Through  the  students  as  evangelists  and  half 
a dozen  churches  with  their  own  pastors  and  many  preaching 
places  taking  advantage  of  everv^  .special  oc*casion  and  opportun- 
ity, a wide-reaching  evangelistic  work  is  done.  East  of  Osaka 
and  south,  the  peninsula  of  Tse  and  Wakayama  juts  out  into  the 
.sea.  On  the  west  side  of  the  peninsula  at  Wakayama  and  Tana- 
be  Dr.  J.  B.  Hail  and  Mi.ss  Leavitt  and  on  the  east  side  at  Yam- 
ada  and  Tsu,  Miss  Biker  and  Dr.  Murray  are  the  only  repre- 
sentatives of  any  Christian  church.  Yamada  is  the  .^eat  of  the 
great  Shinto  shrines  with  their  worship  of  the  Imperial  ances- 
tors, and  near  Wakayama  is  one  of  the  great  Buddhi.st  training 
schools  where  Dr.  Hail  is  always  welcome  to  preach,  where  the 
priests  themselves  have  set  up  a copy  of  the  Xestorian  tablet 
from  China,  and  where  in  many  ways  Christianity  is  .subtly  in- 
fluencing the  Buddhi.st  priesthood  in  one  of  its  greate.st  centers. 
At  Tsu  we  were  glad  to  meet  a young  public  school  teacher  who. 
a year  or  two  ago  of  his  own  accord  and  out  of  the  overflowing 
joy  of  his  own  heart,  had  written  to  the  Board  to  thank  it  for 
having  been  the  means  of  sending  to  .Japan  a religion  which  had 
meant  so  much  to  him. 

Clear  across  on  the  oppo.site  coast  of  .Japan  in  the  most  stul> 
bom  and  conservative  Buddhist  section  of  the  country  are  our 
two  stations  of  Jvanazawa  and  Fukui.  Jn  spite  of  such  oppo.si- 
tion,  however,  and  though  the  rain  was  falling  steadily  we  met 
.a  little  church  full  of  .some  of  the  best  people  in  Fukui  on  a 
weekday  afternoon  and  in  the  evening  saw  the  evangelistic  tent 
full  of  men  and  women  and  boys  and  girls  who  listened  for  near- 
ly three  hours  to  the  songs  and  addresses,  one  of  which  was  made 
by  a converted  Buddhist  priest  who  told  of  the  tenacious  way 
in  which  Christians  had  followed  him  until  he  had  been  won  to 
their  faith  and  who  set  forth  with  unique  i)Ower  the  ability  of 
Christ  to  do  what  he  had  found  Buddhi.sm  impotent  to  accom- 
plish for  his  life.  At  Kanazawa  we  had  the  delightful  experi- 
ence of  attending  the  celebration  of  the  thirtieth  anniversary  of 
the  girls’  school  and  that  experience  alone  was  worth  coming  to 
.Japan  for.  Jt  was  a beautiful  Autumn  morning  in  one  of  the 
most  beautiful  old  places  in  .Japan  and  we  walked  from  Dr. 
Dunlop’s  house  to  the  .school  down  tbroiigh  The  park  of 
which  the  Jvanazawa  people  boast  as  the  loveliest  pai*k  in  the 
Empire  and  for  a good  part  of  the  day  listened  to  the  ceremonies 
in  which  the  leading  educational  representatives  of  the  govern- 
ment in  this  part  of  .Japan  participated  and  which  were  as  full 
of  great  hopes  for  the  future  as  of  happy  memories  of  the  past. 
Ju  the  evening  the  public  hall  of  the  town  was  filled  with  peo- 
ple to  hear  an  evangelistic  address,  starting  with  the  relations 
of  America  and  .Japan  as  a text,  and  the  next  morning  we  saw 
the  church  even  in  this  old  Buddhist  stronghold  filled  with  peo- 
ple, many  of  them  young  men  from  the  government  schools. 

Between  these  east  coast  and  west  coast  stations  and  on  the 

322 


main  line  north  from  Osaka  to  Tokyo,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Gorbold 
are  carrying  on  their  remarkable  work  in  the  old  city  of  Kyoto 
which  contains  the  most  famous  and  beautiful  Buddhist  temples 
in  the  countiy.  Unlike  other  Japanese  cities,  Kyoto  is  laid 
out  with  great  regularity  and  Mr.  Gorbold,  like  a military  strate- 
gist, has  planted  churches  and  chapels  in  each  different  section 
of  the  city  and  has  succeeded  by  God’s  grace  in  filling  the  work 
which  he  and  his  Japanese  fellow  workers  are  doing  with  a spirit 
of  courage  and  hope  that  is  beyond  praise.  In  the  evening  the 
Yoshida  churcli  adjoining  the  University  was  packed  to  the 
doors  and  to  the  roof  with  students  at  a simple  evangelistic 
meeting.  One  of  the  chapels  is  planted  right  under  the  eaves  of 
the  greatest  Buddhist  temple  iu  Japan  with  the  ambition  filling 
the  heart  of  its  young  evangelist  to  build  here  a Christian 
church. 

The  largest  center  of  our  mission  work  in  Japan  is  naturally 
in  Tokyo.  Here  is  the  Meiji  Gakuin,  our  union  school  and  theo- 
logical .seminar^’  carried  on  in  co-operation  with  the  Dutch  Ke- 
formed  Mission  and  shared  now  in  part  by  the  northern  Baptists. 
The  corner  stones  of  two  new  buildings,  a chapel,  and  a recita- 
tion hall  to  replace  buildings  destroyed  by  fire  were  laid  at 
the  time  of  our  visit  which  happily  coincided  with  the  time  of  a 
visit  from  Dr.  Chamberlain  and  Dr.  Hill  repre.senting  the  Dutch 
Reformed  Board.  In  Tokyo  also  is  our  largest  school  for  girls, 
the  Jo.shi  Gakuin,  whose  close  relations  with  the  evangelistic 
life  and  work  of  the  churches  has  given  it  a warm  place  in  the 
hearts  of  Japanese  Christians.  Tokyo  is  an  immense,  distended 
type  of  city  full  of  little  hills  and  hollows  with  perceptible  dif- 
ferences of  social  and  economic  conditions.  There  is  not  the 
.same  concentration  iu  a few  sharj)ly  marked  areas  that  one  finds 
in  a western  city.  There  is  gain  in  this.  The  Christian  churches 
find  more  .spots  where  they  can  fake  rootage  and  it  is  most  en- 
couraging on  riding  about  through  Tokyo  to  see  how  wide-spread 
the  tendrils  of  Christianity  are. 

In  the  north  of  Japan,  in  the  Hokkaido,  are  the  .stations  of 
Sapporo,  Otaru  and  Nokkeushi  far  up  at  almost  the  extreme  end 
of  the  island.  Mi.ss  Rose’s  death  leaves  Otaru  without  missionary' 
occu])ation  but  the  other  two  points  will  suffice  as  centers  of 
missionary  residence.  Here  is  a new  jjopulation  made  up  iu 
large  part  of  the  pioneering  immigrant  class  with  their  charac- 
teristic openne.ss  of  mind  and  freedom  for  change.  Here  amid 
the  heavy  snows  of  winter,  the  glories  of  summer  times  like  tin* 
summers  of  Maine,  and  the  richness  of  autumn  colors  rivalling 
the  best  beauty  of  our  woods  at  home,  and  among  people  need- 
ing all  that  Christ  can  do  for  them  and  awakening  to  their 
neefls,  we  have  a little  grouj)  of  missionaries  singularly  adapted 
and  dev'oted  for  just  such  service  in  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Pierson,  Mr. 
Johnson,  and  Miss  Smith  and  Miss  Monk  and  Miss  Evans  in 
the  Sapporo  Girls’  School. 

There  are  many  things  that  appeal  with  deepest  interest  to 

323 


visitors  to  the  Japan  mission.  One  is  the  large  number  of  iso- 
lated missionaries  or  missionar-}'  families  like  those  who  have 
been  mentioned  and  many  others,  the  Detweilers  in  Fukui,  Mr. 
Whitener  in  Yamaguchi,  Mi.ss  Riker  and  Miss  Leavitt  and  Miss 
Sherman  alone  in  their  stations.  One’s  heart  lingers  behind  with 
all  these  true  and  devoted  workers  whose  friends  are  the  Unseen 
Friend  and  the  heaids  they  have  won  among  the  Japanese  peo- 
ple. Another  interesting  feature  of  the  work  in  Japan  is  the 
five  girl.s’  boarding  schools,  the  four  which  have  been  mentioned 
and  the  Wilmina  Girl.s’  School  in  Osaka  which  perpetuates  the 
name  of  the  fine  school  for  girls  which  the  Cumberland  Presby- 
terian Mission  had  established  and  which  was  united  with  our 
own  school  in  O.saka  at  the  time  of  the  reunion  of  the  two 
chui-ches  at  home.  These  schools  are  rendering  a great  sendee 
to  Japan  and  they  stay  close  by  the  Japanese  churches  training 
the  young  womanhood  of  the  church  in  loyalty  both  to  the 
church  and  to  the  nation.  The  kindergartens  are  another  feature 
of  the  work  whose  fascination  is  irresistible.  One  can  sit  for 
hours  watching  the  little  ones  in  their  butterfly  dresses  and  their 
childish  joy  busy  in  the  kindergarten  plays  and  drinking  in  also 
the  spirit  which  only  Christianity  shows  itself  able  in  these 
lands  to  impart.  This  is  not  a speculation  of  comparative 
religions,  it  is  a downright  and  indisputable  fact  of  experience 
which  any  one  can  test  for  himself  by  simply  going  in  to  these 
mission  kindergartens  and  then  into  any  others. 

We  are  leaving  Japan  just  on  the  eve  of  the  coronation  cere- 
monies. The  Emperor  is  to  go  to-morrow  to  Kyoto  where  all 
has  beeai  made  ready  and  where  amid  the  old  traditions  of  the 
nation  he  will  take  on  formally  the  responsibilities  of  the  high 
place  which  he  fills.  It  is  a great  time  for  Japan  and  the  people 
are  filled  with  a just  and  earnest  sense  of  its  significance.  How 
long  imist  it  be  before  Japan  is  ready  for  another  coronation, 
for  the  recognition  of  another  Kingship  which  gives  to  every 
earthly  ruler  who  acknowledges  it  a new  honor  and  power?  If 
the  day  of  this  other  crowuing  is  long  delayed  whom  will  He 
who  waits  hold  responsible?  R.  E.  S. 


324 


4.  THE  THIRTIETH  ANNIVERSARY  OF  THE 
HOKORIKU  JOGAKKO 


“S.  S.  Sado  Mam” 
Nov.  5,  1915. 

One  of  om’  ino.^^t  delightful  and  illustrative  experiences  during 
our  visit  in  Japan  has  been  the  privilege  of  attending  the  thir- 
tieth anniversary  of  the  founding  of  the  mission  .school  for  girls 
in  Kanazawa.  The  hills  were  wrapped  in  cloud  and  the  mi.sts 
hung  over  the  beautiful  hay  of  Tsuruga  as  we  crossed  over  the 
mountain  range  which  fills  the  whole  heart  of  central  .Tapan, 
and  the  rain  which  falls  most  days  was  dripping  from  the 
thatched  roofs  and  the  thatch  cajtes  of  the  farmers  as  we  came 
into  Kanazawa  in  the  dark.  Rut  the  next  day  was  glorious 
October  weather,  with  the  sun  s])arkling  on  the  evergreens  and 
the  yellow  leaves  of  tlie  maple  trees  and  on  the  white  foam  of 
the  little  water  falls  tliat  tund)le  down  the  park  near  the  big 
statue  of  the  old  warrior  Yamata  who  iu  the  ancient  legends 
drove  northward  out  of  this  j)art  of  Ja])au  tlio.se  first  owners  of 
the  .soil  who  are  represented  now  only  by  a dwindling  company 
of  the  Ainu  jieople  in  the  Hokkaido  to  the  far  north. 

The  anniversary  ceremonies  were  in  the  g;\Tnnasium  of  the 
.school,  an  attractive  new  building  made  jiossible  by  ^Ir.  Ken- 
nedy’s IxHiuest.  The  girls  of  tlie  school  were  there  in  the  neat 
.school  girl  costume  common  throughout  Jajiau,  a simple  waist 
with  loo.se  .sleeves,  a blue  or  plum  colored  .skirt  cut  with  ample 
fulness,  and  the  cumbei-some  obi  which  burdens  the  backs  of 
women  in  the  ordinary  Jajianese  costume  happily  consjiicu- 
ous  by  its  ab.sence.  A good  body  of  tlie  alumnae  had  come  back 
to  share  in  the  celebration  and  to  testify  tlieir  regard  for  the 
school.  A number  of  tlie  leading  women  of  the  community  were 
pre.sent  including  tin*  wife  of  the  Governor  and  a chwrful  little 
old  lady  who  was  both  a baroness  and  a Rmldhist  jiriestess  and 
who  conducteil  a school  of  her  own  in  the  city.  The  heads  of 
the  leading  government  schools  were  there  and  between  fifty 
and  a liundrHl  teachers  in  the  government  schools  throughout 
the  jirovince  who  were  in  Kanazawa  at  the  time  for  a confer- 
ence and  who  came  in  a body.  Di*.  Fulton  of  O.saka  who  had 
spent  many  years  in  Kanazawa  and  Mr.  Detweiler  of  Fukui 
from  our  own  mission  and  the  missionaries  of  the  Canadian 
Methodist  and  Ejiiscopal  Boards  in  Kanazawa  joined  with  our 
own  mi.ssionaries  ajid  with  those  of  us  who  had  come  from 
America. 

The  decorum,  the  good  taste,  the  perfect  conduct  of  the  whole 
celebration  were  delightful.  The  Jaiianese  head  of  the  school 
presided.  Instead  of  announcing  the  speakers  he  would  walk 

325 


across  the  floor  to  where  the  next  speaker  might  be  sitting  and 
make  a bow  or,  if  this  was  not  practicable,  the  speaker  was 
])repar(Hl  witliont  l»eing  called  upon  to  come  forward.  After 
an  opening  pray(*r  by  Mr.  Kawai  the  pastor  of  the  local  clmrch 
whom  many  of  ns  came  to  know  and  respect  as  a true  man  of 
God  when  he  was  in  Amei-ica  several  years  ago,  we  all  stood  for 
tlie  national  anthem  and  then  for  the  reading  of  the  Imperial 
Kescript  on  education  which  was  carrier]  in  great  state  on  a 
tray  covered  by  a jmrple  cloth  and  read  by  the  chairman  who 
held  it  meanwhile  in  white  gloved  hands.  After  the  reading  it 
was  borne  out  in  equal  state  and  then  Dr.  Dunlop  made  an 
a<ldress  in  what  we  saw  to  be  wonderfully  fluent  and  what 
others  said  was  wonderfully  good  Japanese,  telling  the  history- 
and  ideals  of  the  school  and  then  came  the  congratulatory  ad- 
dresses which  we  asked  to  have  translated  afterwards  in  order 
that  we  might  report  them  at  home  both  because  of  what  they 
tell  of  the  history  of  the  school  and  its  work  and  l>ecause  of 
the  highest  government  school  on  the  west  coast  of  Japan: 

The  first  addre.ss  was  by  President  S.  Mizobuchi  the  head  of 
the  highest  goveniment  .school  on  the  west  coast  of  Japan. 

“I  count  it  a great  honor  to  be  one  of  your  guests  here  to-day 
as  you  celebi'ate  the  Thirtieth  Anniversary  of  the  founding  of 
your  School. 

“In  the  thirty  years  of  its  histoiw,  your  School  has  sent  out 
many  graduates  who,  in  the  home  or  abroad  in  society,  by  their 
good  work  testify  to  the  value  of  the  education  received  in  their 
Alma  Mater. 

“In  We.stern  lands  there  are  not  a few  institutions  of  learning 
that  have  been  in  existence  for  several  hundred  of  years,  and  a 
school  of  only  30  years  would  be  counted  a very  new  school.  But 
in  Japan  school  education  is  a very  new  thing,  and  even  among 
schools  for  boys  and  young  men  there  are  few  that  have  a his- 
tory of  even  30  years.  The  institution  with  which  I myself  am 
connected,  the  Higher  School  iu  this  city,  is  only  28  years  old. 
Girls’  schools  are  .still  newei*.  Normal  School  work  in  this  city 
and  i)refecture,  the  training  of  women  teachers,  began  in  the 
8th  year  of  Meiji  (1875) — with  only  two  pupils!  The  First 
High  School  for  girls  began  its  work  17  years  ago,  and  the 
Second  High  School  only  10  years  ago.  while  Kin  jo  Girls’ 
School  opened  its  doors  11  years  ago.  Before  tho.se  schools 
were  established  your  school  had  the  field  of  secondary  educa- 
tion for  girls  in  this  prefecture  all  to  it.self.  It  becomes  clear 
then  that  your  school  has  had  an  important  place  and  done  a 
great  work  in  women’s  eclucation  in  this  part  of  the  Empire. 
As  a citizen  of  Kanazawa  and  one  connected  with  the  work  of 
education,  I beg  to  .say  ray  earnest  thanks  to  all  connected  with 
the  school  and  to  the  Missionary  Society  which  established  it 
for  the  work  which  the  school  has  done.  Although  belonging  to 
another  land,  you  move  us  to  deep  svinpathy  and  warm  grati- 
tude for  the  maiiuer  iu  which  you  have  carried  on  the  educa- 

326 


tion  of  our  girls  in  conformity  with  the  spirit  of  Japan  and 
the  changing  needs  of  Japan’s  advancement, 

“I  thank  you  for  the  invitation  to  be  with  you  today  and 
with  all  my  heart  wish  you  the  greatest  prosperity  in  the  days 
to  come.” 

After  President  Mizobuchi,  Mr.  Sotaro  Haji,  Principal  of  the 
First  High  School  for  girls  in  Kanazawa,  spoke  as  follows: 

“It  is  constantly  declared  by  intelligent  people  in  Europe 
and  America  that  education  for  women  and  girls  holds  a most 
important  place  in  connection  with  the  advancement  of  civiliza- 
tion in  any  nation.  In  Japan,  however,  education  for  women  is 
a recent  introduction,  a new  departure  in  our  national  life,  and 
as  yet  in  its  infancy. 

“This  school,  whose  anniversary  we  celebrate  to-day,  is  regard- 
ed as  a pioneer,  as  it  is  the  oldest  high  school  for  girls  in  this 
prefecture.  The  merits  of  this  institution,  not  only  in  training 
good  and  wise  women  and  sending  them  out  in  large  numbers  to 
different  parts  of  the  Empire,  but  also  in  advancing  education 
in  general  among  women,  should  be  heralded  far  and  wide. 

“As  we  consider  this  excellent  and  very  important  achievement 
we  recall  the  earnest  efforts  and  sincerity  of  Miss  Hesser,  the 
founder  of  this  school.  During  the  early  days  of  organization, 
she  suffered  much  suspicious  opposition,  and  persecution  from 
the  people,  but  she  endured  all  patiently  and  with  firm  faith 
laid  the  foundation  of  this  institution.  Truly  the  school  as  it  is 
now  owes  its  existence  to  her  great  faith  and  efforts. 

“Thus  thirty  years  have  i)as.sed  by.  The  school  has  gradually 
developed.  Kew  buildings  have  been  added  from  year  to  year. 
Wise  and  faithful  teachers  have  been  secured  who  are  discharg- 
ing their  duties  successfully.  The  number  of  pupils  is  increas- 
ing. The  prospect  is  bright.  We  believe  this  institution  will 
contribute  more  and  more  toward  the  success  of  education  for 
women  in  the  years  to  come. 

“With  these  very  imperfect  words  we  extend  our  heartiest  con- 
gratulations upon  this  anniver.sai7,  and  wish  you  continued 
prosperity.” 

Mr.  Haji  was  followed  by  Mr.  Sakuma,  Senior  Principal  of  the 
government  grade  schools  of  Kanazawa,  who  said : 

“In  the  midst  of  this  glorious  autumn  sea.son  when  the  air 
is  clear  and  pure;  when  the  dew  rests  on  the  grass  and  glitters 
like  stars;  when  the  white  and  yellow  chrysanthemums  send 
out  their  delicate  perfume;  our  beloved  Hokuriku  Gakko  is 
celebrating  its  Thirtieth  Anniver.sary.  Our  hearts  cannot  ex- 
press the  joy  we  feel  in  having  a part  in  this  happy  anniver- 
.sary. 

“‘Thirty  year.s’  can  be  exj)ressed  briefly  in  two  words;  but  if 
we  count  the  time  by  months,  they  total  360;  if  by  days,  they 
amount  to  10,060  and  again  by  hours  they  would  assume  the 
great  sum  of  262,980.  Are  not  these  figures  startling? 

“During  these  days,  months  and  years,  this  institution  has 

327 


passed  through  many  changes,  many  vicissitudes;  but  thej’  have 
been  the  cords  which  have  bound  all  things  together  for  aspira 
tion  and  developmeni,  and  have  resulted  in  the  successful  con- 
dition we  see  before  us  to-day. 

“From  the  very  beginning  this  school  has  had  the  reputation 
of  sending  out  young  women  possessing  the  virtues  of  charity, 
gentleness,  and  obedience.  Those  women  during  the  months  and 
years  of  their  lives  have  become  good  wives  and  wise  mothers, 
and  have  become  directly  and  indirectly  of  much  value  to  .societj- 
and  their  native  land.  Personally  I am  sure  there  is  no  doubt 
about  this  being  true.  I firmly  believe  it  to  be  the  truth. 

“It  is  not  simply  by  chance  that  this  school  has  made  this 
progress,  has  gained  tliis  reputation,  has  won  the  confidence  of 
the  people,  and  has  received  special  recognition  from  the  Edu- 
cational Department  of  Japan. 

“As  a message  to  the  large  number  of  vmung  women  studying  . 
in  this  school  I would  say,  ‘Study  with  earnestness,  follow  faith- 
fully the  spirit  of  the  institution,  lift  the  name  of  your  school 
higher  and  higher,  .so  that  it  may  advance  for  thirty,  forty,  fifty, 
one  hundred,  j^ea,  even  one  thousand  years,  and  be  of  great 
value  to  society  and  the  world  in  general.’ 

“With  much  joy  of  heart  I extend  these  words  of  congratu- 
lation to  this  reno^Tied  institution  in  honor  of  its  Thirtieth 
Anniversary.” 

All  the  men  who  .spoke  stood  on  the  platform  facing  the  audi- 
ence in  front  of  them  and  on  either  side  and  after  speaking  laid 
their  congratulatory  messages  in  written  form  on  the  table. 
They  were  followed  by  two  young  women  representing  the 
alumnae  and  the  students  who,  instead  of  .speaking  from  the 
platform,  advanced  to  the  front  row  of  the  aiidience  and  spoke 
facing  the  platfoi’m,  walking  forward  after  their  addresses  to 
lay  the  manuscript  upon  the  table.  Miss  Miyuki  Ishida  spoke 
first  as  repre.senting  the  graduates: 

“Autumn  is  deepening;  the  mountains  are  fine;  the  water  is 
clear;  the  sunlight  is  glorious.  On  this  happy  day  our  mother- 
school,  which  we  re.spect  and  love,  is  holding  the  Thirtieth  Anni- 
versary of  its  founding. 

“When  we  carefully  reflect  upon  the  matter,  there  can  be  none 
who  would  not  want  to  tell  their  children  of  the  earnest  love 
and  the  great  merit  of  the  late  Miss  Hesser.  Thirty  years  ago 
she  came  across  the  sea  to  this  strange  place,  different  from  the 
civilization  and  the  customs  of  her  native  land.  Though  a help- 
less woman  hei*e  in  Kanazawa,  she  resolved  to  open  a school 
for  our  sisters.  In  tho.se  days,  it  need  not  be  said,  the  citizens 
of  Kanazawa  had  no  liking  for  her  work  or  help  to  give  her 
in  it.  But  she  succeeded.  The  school  has  become  strong  in  its 
foundations.  Many  pupils  have  learned  life  here.  And  how 
happy  we  are  to-day!  Let  us  thank  heartily  our  dear  teachers 
who  are  devoting  themselves  to  the  task  of  organizing  and  devel- 
oping our  mother-school. 


328 


“Looking  at  the  present,  civilization  has  made  great  advance 
even  in  this  place.  There  are  two  Girls’  High  Schools  estab- 
lished by  the  government  and  one  municipal  girls’  school,  and 
one  more  private  school  for  girls  besides  this  school.  Never 
has  onr  mother-school  fallen  behind  them.  We  hope  to  see  her 
go  onward  valiantly,  overcoming  all  difficnlties,  and  get  noble 
proportions  like  Mount  Fuji  and  sweet  fragrance  like  the  chrj^- 
.«fanthemnms. 

“So  may  OTir  mother-school  prosper  for  a thousand  years,  or 
even  ten  thousand  years!  May  God  bless  and  guide  our  mother- 
school  forever.” 

With  modesty  and  self-depreciation  such  as  were  deenned 
highly  appropriate,  Miss  Fnknda  spoke  for  the  students  now 
attending  the  school : 

“At  this  season  God’s  works  are  manifest.  The  fields  and 
mountains  are  rich  with  golden  grain  and  luscious  fruit.  The 
chr3^santhemums  are  crowning  the  j^ear  with  beauH^  and  sweet- 
ness, and  e.specially  the  Imperial  Gardens.  This  autumn  sea- 
son has  brought  to  onr  school  man\^  welcome  guests,  especially 
the  visitors  who  have  come  from  afar  to  celebrate  with  us  the 
Thirtieth  Anniversaiw  of  onr  founding. 

“When  we  reflect  ii])on  the  historj-  of  this  school  for  these 
thirty  A’eai*s,  its  light  lias  been  dim  and  its  merits  few.  But 
when  we  look  at  the  footprints  left  bj-  our  benefactors  who  have 
put  forth  increasing  ettorts  for  this  school,  we  find  many  things 
to  in.spire  and  guide  us.  Succession  of  effort  has  meant  accumu- 
lation of  strength  and  this  accumulation  has  meant  an  over- 
coming of  difficulties,  bringing  success.  See  the  tall  ciyptomeria 
rising  above  the  clouds!  Did  it  not  grow  from  a seed?  Think- 
ing of  our  school  as  a garden,  we  can  say  some  plants  have 
bloomed,  some  trees  have  borne  fruit.  So  these  flowers  which 
give  forth  a sweet  perfume  and  these  trees  which  maintain  their 
nprightne.ss  are  now  enriching  main'  lives  both  inside  and  out- 
side the  school  garden  or  school  life. 

“Our  peei'le.ss  treasure,  the  ever-blooming  cherr\'-tree,  seems 
to  be  eager  to  oiien  her  antnnin  floAvers  to  add  to  the  pleasure  of 
this  happy  occasion. 

“Various  flowers  and  leaves  in  our  garden. 

Adorning  the  loveh’  clear  sky  of  the  Fall, 

Are  all  congratulating  j'ou !” 

To  those  who  know  llie  liistoiw  of  the  school  and  the  difficul- 
ties which  it  has  had  to  meet  from  time  to  time  in  the  pa.st  in 
this  distant  section  of  Jaiiaii  where  Buddhism  has  a stronger 
hold  upon  the  peojile  than  iierhaps  in  aiiA’  other  section  of  the 
country  and  where  the  government  has  been  correspondingly 
con.servative,  these  addresses  are  full  of  significance  in  the  evi- 
dence which  the}’  present  of  the  present  confidence  and  good 
will  of  the  iieojile  toward  the  school.  Mi.ss  Luther  and  Miss 
Harris  and  Miss  .Tohnston  and  all  who  have  preceded  them  or 

329 


are  associated  with  them  deserve  to  he  congratulated  on  wlint 
has  been  accomplished  and  on  the  prospect  for  the  coming  yeare. 

The  whole  afternoon  was  given  up  to  music  in  which  the  girls 
had  been  well  trained,  after  a luncheon  in  which  all  the  guests 
shared  with  great  good  spirit  and  at  which  President  Mizobuchi 
made  a happy  speech  and  led  in  three  great  “banzais^’  for  the 
school. 

Japan  has  no  greater  need  to-day  than  the  need  of  a well- 
educated,  clear-minded,  true-hearted  bod}^  of  women  who  will 
help  to  conserve  what  is  best  in  the  national  life  and  character 
and  to  steady  society  in  these  times  of  oscillation  and  change. 
Nowhere  is  the  work  of  Christianity  more  effective  or  more  nec- 
essary than  in  the  inspiration  of  such  education  for  the  woman- 
hood of  a nation.  K.  E.  S. 


5.  SOME  PRESENT  MISSIONARY  MOVEMENTS  AND 
PROBLEMS  IN  JAPAN. 


I.  The  United  Evangelistic  Campaign. 

There  has  always  been  a steady  emphasis  upon  evangelistic 
duty  in  the  churches  in  Japan  and  from  time  to  time  there  have 
been  notable  special  evangelistic  efforts.  Effective  use  has  been 
made  of  the  opportunities  offered  by  expositions.  The  Taikyo 
Dendo  was  a fruitful  evangelistic  campaign  marking  the  begin- 
ning of  the  twentieth  century  and  now  the  churches  throughout 
the  country  are  engaged  generally  in  carrying  forward  a three 
years’  united  campaign.  The  staff  of  workers  has  not  been  large 
enough  to  make  a simultaneous  campaign  possible  and  meetings, 
accordingly,  have  been  conducted  in  different  sections  of  the 
country  on  a general  consecutive  plan.  There  has  been  no  dif- 
ficulty in  securing  audiences  of  attentive  and  responsive  people 
repre.senting  any  level  of  .society  which  is  sought  after.  We 
attended  a number  of  the  meetings  held  in  connection  with  this 
campaign  in  churches,  tents  and  public  halls.  Almost  invariably 
the  meetings  were  crowded,  the  attention  rapt,  the  people  vail- 
ing to  .sit  and  li.sten  for  hours,  tlie  newspaper  reports  full  and 
.SATU pathetic  and  when  expressions  were  called  for  the  response 
would  be  surpri.sing.  Dreat  numbers  have  expre.ssed  a purpose 
fo  follow  Christ  and  much  larger  numbers  a willingne.ss.  to  study 
the  gospel.  There  seem  to  be  no  limitations  upon  this  work 
except  those  which  spring  from  the  fewness  of  the  qualified  work- 
ers or  from  the  inactivity  or  lukewarmness  of  those  Christians 
who  are  not  awake  to  their  duty  and  the  exceptional  opportuni- 
ties of  the  present  time.  The  campaign  is  now  half  over,  unless 
indeed,  as  probably  ought  to  be  done,  it  should  be  made  con- 
tinuous, and  it  has  been  interesting  to  learn  the  opinions  of  fhe 
Japanese  leaders  with  regard  to  it.  They  all  speak  of  the  great 
gain  which  has  come  from  co-operation  of  the  different  denomi- 
nations. Mr.  Irnai,  one  of  fhe  effecfive  preachers  in  the  cam- 
paign, formerly  a Buddhist  priest,  contrasts  the  unity  of  the 
Christians  witli  “the  chasms  between  the  sects  of  Buddhism  and 
of  Shinto,  neither  of  which  could  j)ossibly  carry  on  such  a cam- 
paign.” “Men  of  fhe  most  different  views,”  says  Mr.  T'emura, 
“have  been  delighted  to  find  that  aftei-  all  they  believed  so  many 
great  truths  in  common  and  that  there  was  such  joy  in  getting 
together.”  “If  ever  in  Jaj)an  a union  church  should  develop,” 
said  Mr.  Miyagawa,  “historians  will  trace  it  to  a natural,  unpre- 
meditatefl  outgrowth  of  this  cain]»aign.”  ^lany  churches  have 
gained  in  ineinbershij)  and  tin*  (’hnrcli  <»f  ('hrist  in  .Ta])an  rejoiced 
la.st  year  in  the  largest  number  of  baj)lisnis  that  it  has  ever  had, 
(*qualling  ten  per  cent,  of  the  total  membership  of  the  church. 
The  Japanese  leaders,  however,  speak  earnestly  of  three  great 

331 


needs  which  the  work  of  the  cainpaif^i  thus  far  has  clearly 
revealed.  (1)  The  first  is  the  need  of  a more  distinct  utterance 
of  the  definite  evangelical  note.  It  is  significant  to  have  this 
emphasized  especially  by  Mr.  Miyagawa,  whose  little  book 
“Chri.st  and  His  Mission,”  dealing  with  the  problem  of  the  per- 
son of  Christ,  has  called  forth  some  criticism.  Speaking  with 
regard  to  the  message  of  the  campaign  Mr.  Miyagawa  has  pub- 
licly declared  that  “There  must  be  a far  more  vigorous,  incisive 
presentation  of  the  meaning  of  the  cross  and  salvation  in 
Christ.”  To  this  end  also  it  is  felt  that  there  is  urgent  nee<l 
of  the  raising  uj)  of  men  with  the  gift  of  direct  evangelistic  per- 
.suasion.  (2 1 A .second  m^d  which  is  mentioned  is  the  lack  of 
intensive  j)ei‘sonal  woi’k.  Of  this  Mr.  Femura  says  significantly, 
“The  big  demonstrations  and  mass  meetings  have  by  no  means 
been  wasted.  They  are  especially  appropriate  during  the  first 
year  but  now  we  must  bear  down  upon  personal  evangelism  and 
the  thorough  nurture  of  seekers.  In  this  we  must  seek  the 
aid  of  the  missionaries  more  than  in  the  past.  Doubtless  it  is 
the  fault  of  us  Japane.se  leaders  that  the  missionaries  have  not 
been  sufficiently  prominent  as  speakers  and  workers.  I earnestly 
hope  that  missionaries  will  not  only  be  given  an  opportunitv'  but 
will  press  forward  without  being  asked.  “The  campaign,”  says 
Bishop  TTiraiwa  of  the  Methodist  church,  “has  shown  that  our 
pastors  have  to  be  trained  to  train.  They  do  not  yet  know  how 
to  nurse  into  healthy  life  and  to  guide  on  to  maturity  the  in- 
quirers who  come  to  them.  As  a result  in  the  majority  of  local 
churches  pot  more  than  one-tenth  of  the  persons  whose  .signed 
cards  were  handed  to  the  pastors  have  come  info  church  mem- 
bership.” AVith  this  same  thought  in  mind  Mr.  Femura  urges 
“that,  first  and  last,  what  is  needed  is  a larger  number  of  strong 
men  especially  in  the  mini.stry.  Even  in  the  cities  the  churches 
are  often  poorly  manned  and  it  is  still  worse  in  the  country.  We 
need  to  raise  the  standard  of  ministerial  candidates  and  get  more 
men  in  our  .seminaries  with  the  physique  and  force  and  ability 
of  the  jucked  men  in  the  government  colleges.  Theological  school 
students  should  be  more  carefully  selected  and  not  over  iirged 
to  enter.  They  should  be  put  through  a physical  examination 
and  not  spqiled  by  scholarship  aid.  Let  us  pray  for  men  for 
the  harvest  is  waiting.”  IJl  This  need  of  prayer  is  emphasized 
by  the  Japanese  leaders  as  the  third  great  need.  “There  is  one 
deep  conviction  which  the  last  few  months  have  brought.”  says 
Mr.  Miyagawa,  “Alan’s  wisdom  cannot  open  hearts  nor  save 
souls.  Only  as  we  bow  before  the  heavenly  Father  and  pray  for 
spiritual  power  to  convince  the  audience  and  comfort  the  inquir- 
ers can  hearts  be  won  to  Christ.  Whatever  results  have  been 
achieved  have  come  from  prevailing  praj’er.” 

Two  aspects  of  the  campaign  are  emphasized  by  the  mission- 
aries ill  addition  to  these  points  of  which  the  Japanese  leaders 
speak.  One  of  these  is  the  activity  of  the  laymen.  As  Dr.  Ful- 
ton says,  “The  lay  element  in  the  church  has  brought  to  the 

332 


front  both  men  and  women.  The  call  upon  them  as  speakers  has 
given  them  a new  .‘^ense  of  re.><ponsibjlity,  and  the  healthful  criti- 
cism which  has  been  received  in  some  cases  for  failing  to  utter 
a clear  and  j)ositive  gos])eI  will  not  be  lost  upon  them.”  In  the 
second  place  the  canii)aign  has  hel])e<l  to  reveal  the  growing 
realization  of  the  country  that  the  old  religious  forces  are  inade- 
quate to  meet  the  needs  of  the  nation  or  of  human  life.  At  a 
banquet  of  prominent  men  entertained  at  the  Imperial  hotel 
in  Tokyo  by  the  evangelistic  committee.  Count  Okuma,  whose 
kinship  with  Christian  ideals  is  perhaps  overestimated,  in  review- 
ing the  half  century  of  modern  Christian  work  in  Japan  “not 
onh'  acknowledged  the  large  contribution  made  to  the  betterment 
of  society  but  frankly  stated  his  own  convictions  that  no  prac- 
ticail“solution  of  many  pressing  problems  was  in  sight  apart  from 
Christianity.”  In  his  comments  on  the  campaign  the  Eev.  Har- 
per H.  Coates  of  Tokyo  states  “the  monotheistic  trend  hitherto 
kept  in  the  background  of  Japanese  thought  is  gradually  finding 
expression  among  thinkers  of  light  and  leading  and  cannot  fail 
in  time  to  land  men  in  the  Christian  church.”  Even  Abbot 
Ko.sui,  the  recent  head  of  the  Hongwanji  sect  of  Buddhism  has 
.said  in  a statement  widely  quoted  among  the  imople,  “Buddhism 
in  Japan  as  well  as  in  India  and  China  is  doomed  to  ultimate 
destruction  for  it  is  out  of  touch  with  life.”  In  the  midst  of 
a growing  popular  sentiment  of  which  these  are  expressions  the 
Christian  churches  of  Japan  cannot  feel  too  strongly  the  evan- 
gelistic call. 

11.  T1i€  need  of  new  nii^sioiiaries. 

Conditions  such  as  these  supi)ort  the  aj)i)eal  which  the  mis- 
sions in  Japan  have  been  making  for  many  years  for  re-enforce- 
ments. It  is  not  nece.ssary  to  recai)itulate  the  general  argument 
which  the  mission  body  in  Japan  has  urged  upon  the  churches 
at  home  emj)hasizing  the  strategic  importance  of  evangelizing 
Japan  for  the  .sake  of  Ja])an’s  intlnence  in  Asia,  the  destitution 
of  the  great  village  ]>oj)ulat ions,  the  growth  of  huge  cities  like 
Tokyo  and  Osaka  with  the  m*(‘ds  and  problems  which  religion 
has  to  face  in  such  communities  in  the  West,  the  accessibility 
and  dominating  influence  of  the  student  class,  the  need  of  human 
souls  and  the  lUHid  of  the  soul  of  a nation  for  what  Christianity 
alone  can  do  for  their  guidance  and  their  inspiration.  It  will 
suffice  here  sini])ly  to  i)oint  out  the  nw‘d  in  onr  own  mission.  In 
1890  we  had  21  men  missionaries  of  onr  church  in  Japan,  in 
1900  20,  in  1910  23,  in  1915  25.  Since  1895  ten  new  men  have 
been  ai)j)ointe<l  of  whom  six  are  still  uj)on  the  field.  Meanwhile 
Dr.  Winn  and  Mr.  Curtis  have  bwii  transferred  to  Korea  and 
Manchuria  and  of  those  remaining  in  Japan  a number  are  near 
ing  the  end  of  their  work  or  coming  to  the  time  when  they  must 
lay  part  of  it  aside.  Dr.  Thonrpson  passe<l  away  while  we  were 
in  Tokyo  and  we  said  good  bye  to  others  who,  with  joy  for  them- 
.selves  but  sorrow  for  the  work,  recognize  that  the  time  of 

333 


their  departure  also  would  soon  1m*  mI  hand.  If  our  work  in 
Japan  were  a stationary  or  derlinin}?  work  it  might  be  well  to 
let  the  mission  dwindle  away  hut  this  is  .so  far  from  being 
the  case  that  it  is  fair  to  say  we  have  no  other  field  where  the 
needs  and  the  opportunitifts  alike  are  more  compelling.  It  is  not 
necessary"  nor  desirable  to  raise  any  <*mergency  appeal.  No  large 
body  of  reenforcements  is  calhMl  for  but  there  should  be  the 
steady  addition  year  by  year  of  one  or  two  carefulh’  chosen  men 
qualified  for  the  work  in  Japan  to  take  the  place  of  the  older 
men  who  are  lajdng  down  their  work  and  to  bring  the  new 
strength  needed  by  the  new  time. 

Mr.  Ueinura’s  opinion  which  1 have  (iuot(*d  in  connection  with 
the  evangelistic  campaign  is  extremely  significant.  He  lias 
always  been  conservative  in  his  judgements  as  to  a larger  field 
and  need  for  foreign  missionaries.  Now,  not  only  does  he  believe 
strongly  that  the  missionaries  on  the  field  should  be  draxvm  on 
more  heavily  than  ever  in  the  evangelistic  work  of  the  church 
but  he  begged  me  to  urge  the  Board  in  the  strongest  way  to 
send  out  specially  an  additional  man  or  two  for  Tokyo  itself 
where  our  mission  does  Tiot  now  have  any  man  doing  evangelistic- 
work  and  where  our  force  is  inadefiuate  also  to  can-}'  our  edu- 
cational and  general  mi.ssionary  responsibility.  Large  .sections 
of  the  country  which  fall  within  our  fields  cannot  be  reached 
because  of  the  inadecjuacy  of  our  force  and  long  ago  every  margin 
was  wiped  out  which  might  have  enabled  the  mission  to  take  care 
of  its  work  in  the  case  of  emergencies. 

The  Board  has  been  (piite  ready  to  .send  out  new  missionaries 
to  Japan  but  the  difficulty  has  been  to  find  men.  The  minds  of 
candidates  have  been  tunied  toward  other  fields.  Some  of  the 
reasons  for  this  have  doubtless  been  the  reaction  from  the  enthu- 
siasms and  unfulfilled  hopes  of  the  early  rai.ssionary  advocates 
from  Japan,  the  feeling  that  the  church  in  Japan  was  strong 
and  able  to  take  care  of  its  own  work,  the  idea  that  Japan  itself 
was  now  pretty  well  evangelized  or  at  any  rate  had  the  main 
benefits  of  western  civilization  (an  idea  of  increasing  strength 
where  the  .spiritual  aspects  of  Christianity  are  overshadowed  by 
the  social  and  philanthropic  and  where  the  mi.ssionary  motive 
is  humanitarian  rather  than  evangelical),  the  fear  on  the  part 
of  humble  minded  men  that  they  were  not  qualified  to  meet  the 
situation  in  Japan,  the  supposition  that  the  Japanese  themselves 
did  not  want  more  missionaries,  the  greater  attraction  of  other 
fields,  etc.  As  the  result  of  an  inquiry  made  by  a committee  of 
the  Pre.sbyterian  and  Reformed  missions  it  appears  that  most 
of  the  missionaries  who  have  gone  to  Japan  in  recent  years  have 
done  so  in  response  to  the  effort  and  influence  of  the  mission 
boards  and  not  because  of  their  initial  preference  for  that  field. 
There  is  need  of  careful  and  continuous  work  on  the  part  both 
of  the  Boards  and  of  the  missionaries  coming  home  on  furlough 
from  Japan  in  the  selection  and  calling  out  of  the  reenforce- 
ments which  Japan  must  have.  There  is  need  for  men  of  as 

334 


great  promise  of  ability  and  power  as  can  be  found.  There  is 
room  also  for  men  who  do  not  think  of  themselves,  and  of  whom 
others  do  not  think,  as  cominanding  leadei's  but  who  are  will- 
ing to  learn  a hard  language,  to  live  lives  of  love,  and  to  preach 
Christ  to  men.  As  one  of  our  most  faithful  missionaries  wrote 
in  a farewell  note  as  we  wei'e  leaving,  “We  want  earnest  men 
and  women  (I  don’t  see  the  need  of  a long  list  of  qualifications) 
for  this  country  work.  An  earnest  man  will  be  heard  and  will 
secure  new  earnest  men.  I am  thinking  and  praying  and  look- 
ing for  this  man,  a man  who  believes  the  gospel  and  wants  to 
tell  it  to  his  people.  This  is  91)  per  cent,  of  the  qualification.” 
More  than  ever  I believe  thi.s.  There  is  room  in  the  mission 
fields  for  every  gift  of  mind  and  character  but  the  supreme  need 
is  for  men  and  women  who  know  how  to  love  and  to  work, 
whose  hearts  are  empty  of  i)ride,  and  who  will  lay  out  their  lives 
withoiit  advertisement  or  melodrama  upon  the  life  of  the  people, 
realizing  that  every  other  .specialization  is  trifling  in  compari- 
son with  the  elemental  application  of  the  gospel  to  the  family 
life  of  the  people. 

III.  New  educational  problems. 

As  lias  already  been  stated  in  the  previous  discu.ssion  of  gen- 
eral conditions  in  .Tapan  the  nation  is  greatly  intere.sted  in  pro- 
posals of  educational  reform  which  are  being  pressed  by  a large 
body  of  eflucational  progressives  again.sf  the  opposition  of  the 
older  men  in  the  Imperial  TJniver.sities.  The  pre.sent  educational 
.system  of  Japan  provides  for  a six  year  jirimary  course  followed 
by  a five  year  middle  course  and  then  a three  year  higher  cour.se 
and  then  above  this  the  Imperial  University  with  its  general 
and  iiost-graduate  cour.ses.  The  system  has  not  been  entirely 
satisfactoiy.  It  is  criticised  for  its  rigidity,  for  its  over-speciali- 
zation, for  its  narrowness  and  monopolism.  There  have  been 
of  course  various  specialized  schools  articulated  to  the  general 
cour.se  but  these  have  not  furnished  all  that  the  reformers 
demand.  They  believe  tliere  should  be,  immediately  following 
the  Middle  School,  a four  years’  course  of  a more  cultural  char- 
acter, resembling  an  American  college  and  that  there  should 
be  much  more  liberty  allowe^l  to  jirivate  parties  desiring  to  estab- 
lish such  colleges,  and  that  the  degrees  of  such  colleges  should 
be  made  much  freer,  and  that  the  educational  aristocracy  of  the 
present  .system  should  be  broken  down.  These  colleges  or 
l)aigakkos  would  be  followed  by  professional  schools  or  Daigak- 
kuin.  Side  by  side  Avith  the.se  Daigakko  and  Daigakkuiii  and 
beginning  like  the  Daigakko  on  top  of  the  Middle  School  course 
then*  would  be  a larger  develojunent  of  the  pre.sent  Semmon 
Gakko.  or  special  schools,  giving  a normal  or  commercial  or  other 
si)ecialized  training  to  those  not  de.siring  the  cultural  course  of 
the  Daigakko  either  for  its  own  sake  or  as  a preparation  for  the 
profes.sional  aiid  graduate  courses.  The  reform  mea.sures  which 
are  proposed,  it  is  hoped,  would  open  the  graduate  courses  of 

3.35 


the  Imperial  Universities  to  the  {graduates  of  any  Daigakko. 
This  would  work  a great  ehange  for  the  mission  schools  which 
are  not  allowed  to  send  on  their  higher  school  students  at  pres- 
ent into  the  Imperial  University  and  which  for  this  and  other 
consequent  reasons  find  great  difficulty  in  maintaining  any 
higher  schools  at  all.  The  whole  body  of  reform  proposals  is 
still  under  discussion  but  it  is  generally  believed  that  in  .some 
form  they  will  be  adopted,  and  they  are,  the  problem  of  Chris- 
tian education  will  be  greatly  changed. 

1.  For  many  years  there  has  been  discu.ssion  of  the  need  of  a 
Christian  University  in  Japan.  The  argument  for  such  a uni- 
versity and  the  outline  of  a plan  and  constitution  therefor  and 
a statement  of  the  history  of  the  co-operative  effort  among  the 
missions  in  Japan  to  secure  such  an  institution  are  all  .set  forth 
in  the  pamphlet  entitled  “Proposed  plan  for  a Christian  Uni- 
versity in  Japan,”  issued  bj’  the  Christian  Univer.sity  Promot- 
ing Committee.  Under  the  educational  sy.stem  which  has  hith- 
erto prevailed  it  has  been  propo.sed  that  the  Christian  Univer- 
sity should  be  of  the  grade  of  the  Imperial  University  and  that 
the  union  of  the  missions  should  begin,  accordingly,  above  the 
Koto  Gakko,  or  higher  school,  department.  This  would  mean 
that  missions  carrying  on  a complete  school  system  would  pro- 
vide separately  after  the  government  primary  school  work  for 
five  years  in  a Middle  School  and  three  years  in  the  Higher 
School  and  then  after  this  begin  the  union  educational  work. 
Under  the  new  educational  proposals,  however,  the  colleges  or 
Daigakkos  will  take  the  place  of  the  Higher  School  and  of  the 
lower  work  of  the  Imperial  University  and  the  question  ha.'^ 
arisen  accordingly  whether  the  missions  might  not  unite  in  a 
separate  college  instead  of  attempting  to  build  up  .separate  col- 
leges. It  was  quite  clear  from  what  we  learned  in  Japan  that 
this  would  not  be  possible.  At  least  four  denominations  feel 
that  they  should  develop  their  own  separate  colleges.  The  Jap- 
anese churches  are  unwilling  to  merge  their  educational  efforts 
of  this  grade  so  that  the  only  general  union  in  educational  work 
that  is  possible  will  have  to  be  in  work  above  the  college  grade 
of  a purely  professional  or  post-graduate  character.  And  if  the 
professional  and  graduate  cour.ses  of  the  Imperial  Universities 
are  to  be  open  now  to  graduates  of  Christian  Daigakko,  then 
a good  part  of  the  old  argument  for  a Christian  Universitj-  is 
taken  away  and  it  is  very  probable  that  for  the  present  at  least 
the  missions  and  churches  in  Japan  would  not  need  to  aim  at 
more  than  the  establishment  of  Christian  university  courses  in 
philosophy  and  literature  with  some  other  work  cognate  to  these 
subjects. 

It  has  been  very  intere.sting  to  see  in  the  discussions  of  this 
subject  in  Japan  the  emphasis  laid  upon  the  strong  denomina- 
tional feeling  of  the  Japanese  churches.  Dr.  Chamberlain  and 
I were  amazed  to  hear  what  was  said  on  this  subject.  It  will 
not  be  possible  for  either  the  missions  or  the  churches  in  Japan 

336 


to  lay  on  the  Boards  at  home  responsibility  for  the  perpetuation 
of  denominational  distinctions  Avliich  are  evidently  miich  more* 
stressed  by  the  Japanese  church  leaders  than  they  are  by  most 
of  our  Boards  at  home. 

2.  The  discussions  with  regard  to  educational  co-operation  to 
which  we  have  listened  make  it  very  clear  that  several  strong 
denominations  cannot  be  counted  upon  to  participate  in  this 
co-operation  at  all,  while  others  will  jjarticipate  only  in  such 
advanced  graduate  work  as  is  very  unlikely  to  be  started  for  some 
years.  On  the  other  hand  the  Congregationalists  in  Doshisha 
in  Kyoto,  the  Methodists  in  the  Aoyama  Gakkuin  in  Tokyo,  the 
Episcopalians  in  the  Rikkyo  Gakknin  in  Tokyo,  and  the  Cana- 
dian and  Southern  Methodists  in  the  Kwansei  Gakkuin  in  Kobe 
will  either  continue  and  strengthen  their  present  higher  schools 
or  establish  Daigakko,  or  colleges,  under  the  reform  regulations 
if  they  are  adopted.  These  churches  and  the  missions  working 
with  them  feel  that  they  need  these  higher  schools  for  the  sake 
of  the  lower  schools  and  also  for  the  needs  of  the  denomination. 
This  confronts  the  Church  of  Christ  and  our  Pre.sbyterian  and 
Reformed  missions  with  the  problem  of  their  duty  in  connec- 
tion with  the  Meiji  Gakkuin.  We  are  ready  and  would  desire 
to  unite  with  all  the  other  missions  in  establishing  one  super- 
latively good  Christian  college,  but  as  this  is  impracticable,  it 
is  inconceivable  that  the  Church  of  Christ  should  be  left  with- 
out educational  institutions  adequate  to  its  need.  It  is  the  strong- 
e.st  church  in  Japan.  It  should  have  provided  in  the  Meiji  Gak- 
kuin, an  institution  which  will  do  for  it  and  through  it  for  the 
nation  what  education  has  done  for  and  through  the  Presby- 
terian and  Reformed  churches  in  America.  At  the  same  time 
this  should  be  done  in  the  catholic  spirit  which  has  always  char- 
acterized the  Church  of  Christ  and  there  seems  rea.son  to  hope 
that  the  Xorthern  Baj)tists  might  be  willing  to  join  with  the 
Church  of  Christ  and  the  Presbyterian  and  Reformed  missions  in 
a Union  Christian  College  Avhich  would  meet  their  needs  and 
be  ready  to  co-ojterate  with  other  Chri.stian  colleges  in  develop- 
ing such  graduate  com*ses  as  may  be  found  to  be  necessary  and 
practicable.  The  ability  and  sj)irit  with  which  Dr.  Ibuka  is 
meeting  the  jiroblem  are  <leserving  of  the  highest  praise. 

3.  Parallel  with  the  movement  for  a Christian  University  there 
has  been  a corresponding  movement  for  the  e.stabli.shment  of  a 
Woman’s  Union  Christian  College.  Thus  far  this  movement  has 
been  able  to  secure  on  its  promoting  committee  appointed  repre- 
sentatives from  only  threi‘  denominations.  Baptist,  Methodist  and 
Pi-esbyterian,  the  latter  including  in  Japan,  of  course,  both  the 
Presbyterian  and  the  Reformed  Churches.  The  proposal  is  to 
unite  the  higher  departments  of  such  schools  as  are  willing  to 
join.  This  would  not  produce  a single  women’s  Christian  Col- 
lege in  Japan  as  there  are  two  other  denominations  whose  pur- 
pase  is  to  establish  their  own  women’s  college.s,  but  it  would 
bring  to  the  proposed  college  resources  and  supj)ort  which  would 

337 


probably  euable  it  better  than  any  single  denominational  insti- 
tution, to  nietd  the  needs  of  I lie  t'lirisfian  (diureb  and  the  nation 
for  the  Iiigher  education  of  women  under  Christian  ideals.  Our 
own  mission  has  approval  of  tlie  co-operation  of  our  girls’  sclnxds 
in  the  proposed  plans  “witli  the  understanding  that  the  funds 
required  shall  l>e  specially  aiijiropriated  outside  of  the  ordinaiw 
funds  of  the  mission”  and  “contingent  upon  the  insertion  in  the 
constitution  of  a statement  to  the  etfect  that  the  college  as  a col- 
lege shall  hold  religious  seiwices  statedly  and  that  the  study  of 
the  Bible  be  included  in  the  curriculum.”  These  insertions  do 
not  appear  to  have  been  re<iuired  in  the  jiropo.sed  constitution 
of  the  Christian  University  where  the  jmmioting  committee  has 
been  content  with  specifying  that  “The  University  .shall  always 
be  a Christian  institution.  The  members  of  the  Board  of  Trus- 
tees, the  President  of  the  University  and  the  Deans  shall  be 
members  of  evangelical  Chri.stian  churches.  The  re.sponsibility 
of  the  Board  of  Trustees  and  the  Oliflcers  of  the  University  .shall 
always  include  the  care  and  develoj)inent  of  the  religious  and 
social  life  of  the  students.” 

lY.  The  Church  of  Christ  in  Japan. 

The  story  of  the  founding  and  development  of  the  Church  of 
Christ  in  Japan  is  told  in  l)r.  Imbrie’s  little  book  “The  Church 
of  Chri.st  in  Japan.”  It  is  one  of  the  most  remarkable  Christian 
chui’ches  which  have  as  yet  been  developed.  It  has  nine  pre.sby- 
teries,  with  seventy-t\\lo  selif-supporting  churches.  Indeed  it 
recognizes  no  church  organization  as  having  the  full  .status  of 
a church  until  it  is  .self-sup])orting.  In  addition  to  the  self-siip- 
porting  churches  it  has  124  other  congregations  with  51  addition- 
al, which  are  connected  with  the  affiliated  foreign  missions  and 
which  will  in  time  pass  over  wholly  to  the  Church  of  Christ.  It 
has  now  a membership  of  over  25.000,  a body  of  160  pastors  and 
161  evangelists  and  licentiates.  .302  elders  and  109  deaconesses. 
Of  its  46.3  trustees  58  are  women,  1,166  Sunday-school  teachers 
teach  the  16,078  Sunday-school  scholars.  The  total  value  of  the 
Church’s  property  is  Yen  615,000.  Its  contributions  in  1914  were 
Yen  112,000  and  over  Yen  4,300  were  given  to  its  Board  of  Mis- 
.sions,  whose  total  contributions  from  all  sources,  churches  and 
individuals  for  1913  were  over  Yeu  11,000. 

Two  meetings  which  we  attended  in  Tokyo  gave  us  a clearer 
idea  of  the  character  and  influence  of  the  Church  of  Christ. 
One  of  these  was  the  meeting  of  its  Women’s  Missionary  So- 
ciety held  in  the  beautiful  home  of  one  of  the  leading  doctors 
of  Tokyo,  whose  wife  was  president  of  the  society.  There  were 
pre.sent  women  of  many  social  relationships  from  a viscountess 
down.  It  was  just  such  a group  of  strong,  capable,  Christian 
women  as  might  be  met  in  one  of  our  women’s  missionary  boards 
at  home.  They  explained  to  us  the  work  that  they  were  doing 
at  home  and  abroad  and  sent  their  greetings  to  the  women  in 
America  through  whom  the  best  thing  in  life  had  come  to  them. 

338 


The  other  gathering  was  at  a luncheon  given  in  honor  of  our 
deputation  and  the  deputation  of  the  Diitch  Reformed  Board  at 
which  there  were  present  about  sixty  men  and  women  of  the 
church.  There  were  three  members  of  Parliament,  three  gen- 
erals in  the  aiany,  three  eminent  lawyers  and  three  of  the  good 
doctors  of  the  city.  There  was  a daughter  of  Prince  Iwakura 
who  led  out  from  Japan  the  embassy  which  came  back  with  the 
pui'poses  and  ideas  which  have  made  the  new  Japan.  There 
was  the  executive  secretary  of  the  Bed  Cross  Society  and  there 
were  many  of  the  men  who  stand  at  the  head  of  the  thought  and 
life  of  the  Christian  forces  of  the  Empire.  It  filled  one  Avith 
gratitude  and  with  confidence  to  .see  such  a group  of  Christian 
men  and  women  and  to  think  of  the  church  whicli  they  repre- 
.seuted.  These  men  under.stand  tlie  problems  with  whicli  Chris- 
tianity has  to  deal  in  the  national  life  of  Japan  and  in  the 
modern  world.  No  inrush  of  ideas  or  forces  hostile  to  evangeli- 
cal truth  can  surprise  them.  The  Church  of  Christ  is  a body 
with  which  we  can  rejoice  to  co-operate  in  the  evangelization  of 
Japan  and  the  Chri.stianization  of  its  influence  in  Asia. 

The  church  has  many  grave  jiroblems  to  face  both  within  and 
without,  such  as  the  laxity  of  Sabbath  obseiwance,  the  loss  of 
church  membership  through  the  migratory  habits  of  the  Japan- 
e.se,  the  provision  of  an  adeipiate  number  of  strong  men  for  the 
ministry,  and  the  unitication  of  their  training,  the  promotion  of 
Christian  unity  where  denominational  distinctions  appear  to 
be  fixing  themselves  somewhat  after  the  fa.shion  of  the  .sects  of 
Buddhi.sm  but  without  auytliing  like  tlieir  divi.sivene.ss  and  con- 
flict. Outwardly,  surely  one  of  tlie  most  important  problems  is 
the  strengthening  of  friendly  relationshiiis  with  the  churches  in 
Korea  and  China.  If  the  Christians  of  these  countries  cannot 
come  together  in  love  and  tru.st  what  hoi»e  is  there  of  the  e.stab- 
lishment  of  an}'  iutei-relations  of  real  friendship?  There  are 
many  Chinese  and  Koreans,  siiecially  students,  in  Tokyo,  but 
these  have  been  holding  aloof  by  themselves.  Many  of  the 
Koreans  are  Christians  and  Mr.  remura  argues  that  instead  of 
hav'ing  their  sejiarate  Koi-eaii  church,  it  would  be  better  for 
them,  as  al.so  for  .Faimiie^si*  in  tin*  Ciiited  States,  to  join  existing 
local  churches  and  mingle  themselves  with  the  Christian  people 
among  whom  they  are  living.  The  Christian  girls’  schools  in 
Japan  are  doing  a great  deal  to  j)romote  unity  of  feeling  by  the 
way  ill  which  the  .Japanese  girls  in  these  schools  are  treating  the 
many  Koreun  girls  who  are  studying  with  them.  But  the  Chin- 
ese and  Korean  young  men  hold  ajiart.  New  measures  need  to 
be  devi.sed  to  make  Tokyo  not  a jdace  where  racial  feelings  are 
intensified  as  at  iiresent.  but  a center  of  brotherhood.  And  some 
way  should  be  found  also  for  clo.scr  acipiaintance  and  relation- 
ship between  the  Church  of  Christ  and  onr  Presbyterian  churches 
in  Korea  and  in  northern  China.  There  is  a chance  here  for 
large-minded  and  constructive  Christian  service  which  will  prove 
to  be  a national  .service  in  the  best  sense  on  the  part  of  the 
Church  of  Christ. 


339 


V.  Three  ufieful  imiitutionH. 

Tlio  Tokyf)  scliool  foi"  fo)x*i;£ii  cliildrcn  is  an  to  meet  Iho 

needs  of  missionary  families  and  other  forei{^i  families  having 
yonng  children  of  school  ag(‘  not  old  enough  to  he  sent  home  to 
the  countries  of  their  parents.  There  an'  two  hnndn^d  of,  or  ap- 
jn'oaching,  school  age  in  114  missionary  families  living  chiefly  in 
the  central  and  northern  ]>arts  of  Japan.  In  addition  there  are 
between  100  and  150  children  of  non-niissionan’  families  living  in 
the  vicinity  of  Tokyo.  The  Canadian  Methodist  Mission  has  an 
excellent  school  for  its  own  children  and,  within  the  capacity  of 
the  school,  has  taken  in  other's,  at  Kobe  and  the  missionaries  in 
Kyoto  have  a small  local  school  of  their  own.  In  Tokyo  and 
Yokohama  about  fifty  children  of  Protestant  parents  have  had 
to  be  sent  to  Koman  Catholic  schools.  At  present  there  are  in 
the  Tokyo  school,  which  has  been  established  by  a committee 
chiefly  of  missionaries,  about  forty  children,  three-fifths  of 
whom  are  from  missionary  families.  As  yet  the  school  has  been 
able  to  ])i'ovide  for  only  a few  boarders.  Our  own  Board  has 
at  pi'esent  very  few  children  in  Japan  who* could  make  use  of 
such  a school,  but  if  the  mis.sion  is  adequately  i*eenforced  we 
shall  have  increased  need  of  such  an  institution."  The  Board  has 
authorized  the  mission  to  contribute  toward  its  support  within 
the  limits  of  the  mission’s  appropriation,  but  the  committee  of 
the  school  is  appealing  for  stronger  support  from  all  the  agen- 
cies which  should  be  interested  in  it. 

The  Tokyo  Language  School  is  doing  excellent  work  in  pro- 
viding competent  language  instruction  for  new  missionaries.  The 
new  missionaries  sent  out  by  the  Board  in  recent  years  have 
profited  greatly  from  this  school  which  provides  far  more  effici- 
ent language  teaching  than  it  was  possible  for  the  missionaries 
to  receive  in  the  old  days.  It  is  a question  as  to  whether  it  is 
wise  for  missionaries  to  take  a second  year  at  such  a language 
school.  “'Some  feel  that  an  adequate  satisfactory  first  j’ear's 
work  should  so  prepare  the  student  that  he  will  be  able  to  go  to 
some  other  place  in  Japan  where  there  are  few  or  no  foreigners 
and  progress  more  rapidly  with  the  help  of  a Japanese  teacher 
and  by  as.sociation  with  Japanese  friends  than  he  could  by  con- 
tinuing to  live  in  Tokj'o,  even  though  he  have  the  help  of  sys- 
tematic instruction  there.” 

The  third  most  hopeful  enterprise  of  co-operation  in  Japan  ^ 
is  the  (’liristian  Literature  Society,  supported  by  all  but  one  or 
two  of  tlie  missionary  agencies  at  work  in  the  countiw,  and  accom- 
])li.shing  in  the  field  of  ('hristian  Literature  and  its  production, 
])ublication  and  circulation,  what  it  is  absolutely  impossible  for 
any  one  agency  to  do  alone.  The  Southern  Methodist  and  South- 
ern Bajdist  churches  have  been  es])ecially  generous  in  the  con- 
tribution of  the  time  and  strength  of  their  missionaries  to  this 
co-operative  service.  A number  of  admirable  books  on  homi- 
letics, aj)ologetics,  church  historj',  and  general  Christian  litera- 

340 


ture  have  been  issued  by  this  society.  It  is  doing  a necessary 
work  in  a most  efficient  way,  and  deserves  the  heartiest  support 
of  all  the  missiouar\"  agencies  in  the  land. 

YI.  Five-Year  Program  of  the  Japan  Mission. 

At  its  meeting  in  the  summer  of  1914  the  mission  adopted  a 
program  indicating  the  expan.sion  which  is  practicable  and  de- 
sirable in  the  work  of  each  station  for  the  next  five  years  show- 
ing the  number  of  missionaries  needed,  the  new  property  which 
should  be  provided  and  tlie  increase  of  annual  appropriations 
necessary  to  maintain  the  enlarged  work  which  should  be  car- 
ried on.  If  this  program  should  be  carried  out  it  would  mean 
the  addition  of  nine,  married  mis.sionaries  and  ten  single  women 
at  an  annual  expense  of  .|21,000  gold,  an  increase  of  the  annual 
appropriation  by  Yen  07,500  and  additions  to  property  amount- 
ing to  Yen  222,350.  In  urging  this  program  the  mission  says, 
“We  solicit  the  hearty  sympathy  of  the  Board  in  behalf  of  the 
movement,  and  its  aid  in  making  the  work  of  the  furloughed 
Missionaries’  Committee  a success.  It  is  hoped  that  this  con- 
certed action  will  serve  to  make  clearer  to  the  home  constitu- 
encies the  real  needs  of  the  work  in  this  country  and  conse- 
quently will  awaken,  on  the  one  hand,  .such  renewed  interest  on 
the  part  of  missionary  candidates  as  shall  resiilt  in  adequate 
reinforcements  being  sent  to  .Tapan ; and  on  the  other,  such 
strong  conviction  of  the  importance  of  pushing  fons-ard  the 
Cbristian  enterprise  here,  as  shall  secure  from  our  constitu- 
encies largely  increasecl  funds  for  the  .support  of  the  work  wait- 
ing to  be  done. 

“Beferring  to  our  own  program,  we  beg  to  assure  the  Board 
that  it  is  a con.servative  one.  In  the  aggregate,  it  involves  a 
considerably  increased  outlay,  but  it  is  to  be  rememberefl  that 
we  are  one  of  the  leading  mis.sions  in  Japan,  Avith  heaviest  re- 
sponsibilities. We  l)elieve  that  our  constituency  will  not  favor 
any  shirking  of  our  j)ro])er  share  of  the  task  of  Christianizing 
the  Japanese  nation,  and  in  particular  will  heartily  second  what- 
ever advance  is  possible  at  this  time  of  greatest  opportunity.  We 
do  not  .seek  a special  Japan  Campaigrn  after  the  manner  of  the 
Korea  and  the  Chinn  Campaigns;  but  we  do  urge  upou  the  Board 
that  this  five-year  j»rogram  shall  be  brought  to  the  attention  of 
the  whole  Church  iu  such  manner  as  the  Board  may  deem  wi.se, 
and  that  it  may  be  given  its  proper  place  of  importance  in  the 
develoi)ment  of  the  whole  missionary  work  for  which  our  church 
is  responsible.” 

R.  E.  S. 


341 


().  PROBLEMS  ON  JIEALTH  CONDITIONS  IN  JAPAN 


My  itinerary  in  Japan  included  (apart  from  the  ports,  Yoko- 
hama, Kobe,  Nagasaki  and  Shimonoseki,  which  we  entered  on 
our  outward  way  and  on  the  retuni  from  Manila)  Osaka,  Kyoto, 
Kanazawa,  Fukui,  Tokyo,  and  Nikko.  As  our  Boarfl  no  longer 
lias  any  medical  work  in  Japan,  attention  was  devoted  to  the 
questions  of  climate,  living  conditions,  and  the  health  problems 
attending  the  work  in  that  country.  The  many  i.slands  included 
within  the  Empire  are  stretched  for  2,000  miles  along  the  Asiatic 
coast,  Formosa  and  Saghalin  being  included,  but  our  work  lies 
on  the  main  island,  Nippon,  betw'een  34  degrees  and  42  degrees 
N.  latitude,  our  most  northerly  station  having  practically  the 
latitude  of  New  York.  The  majority  of  our  stations  are  in  the 
neighborhood  of  Tokyo  at  the  latitude  of  the  northern  parts  of 
our  southern  States.  The  islands  are  everywhere  .subjected  to 
the  moderating  influence  of  the  surrounding  seas,  so  that  in  none 
of  our  stations  are  the  temperature  variations  as  severe  as  those 
encountered  at  home.  At  some  points  along  the  western  coast 
(Kanazawa  and. Fukui)  the  rainfall  is  at  times  excessive  and 
they  may  have  many  cloudy  and  rainy  days  in  succession.  Like- 
wi.se  in  winter  hea\’y  falls  of  snow  may  occur,  but  snow  never 
lies  long.  Only  in  the  most  northerly  stations  is  the  cold  severe. 
Were  our  people  compelled  to  live  in  the  frail  Japanese  houses, 
they  would  undoubtedly  feel  the  winter  keenly,  for  the  Japanese 
as  a race  are  inured  to  endure  both  heat  and  cold  better  than 
we  and  their  houses  being  built  accordingly  do  not  furnish  suf- 
ficient protection  from  cold.  Fortunately  with  few  exceptions 
our  people  are  quartered  in  houses  built  in  our  own  manner  and 
])rovided  with  adequate  heating  facilities,  so  that  they  do  not 
feel  the  winters  severe.  The  summers  while  hot  are  no  worse 
than  those  of  our  southern  states,  and  there  are  many  accessible 
mountain  resorts  where  the  summer  temperature  is  quite  mod- 
erate. In  .short  the  climatic  conditions  are  not  so  different  from 
those  at  home  as  to  affect  materially  the  missionaries’  health. 

Public  health  conditions  are  not  as  good  as  they  might  be 
made.  There  is  a surprising  amount  of  contagious  eye  disea.se 
in  Japan  and  wherever  one  goes  he  sees  many  children  suffering 
from  transmissible  skin  disorders.  The  Japane.se  people  also 
suffer  from  many  parasitic  infections,  some  of  them  of  the  grav- 
est character,  practically  unknown  to  us.  Dysentery  is  com- 
mon and  severe  among  them.  But  from  all  these  things  it  is 
comparatively  eas^'  for  the  educated  foreig^ier  to  protect  him- 
self and  to  live  almost  as  safely  as  at  home.  Indeed  when  one 
comes  to  inquire  into  the  details  of  the  frequent  invalidism  of 
missionaries  in  Ja])an,  he  find.s  that  this  is  for  the  most  part 
due  not  to  epidemic  or  infectious  disease  but  to  nervous  dis- 

342 


orders.  According  to  a recent  editorial  in  the  China  Medical 
Journal  over  80  per  cent,  of  the  disability  of  missionaries  in 
Japan  is  caused  by  neurasthenia,  while  insanity  is  not  infre- 
quent. Our  Board’s  experience  would  certainly  confirm  the  im- 
portance of  neurasthenia  in  this  relation. 

The  prime  que.stion,  therefore,  in  regard  to  the  health  of  mis- 
sion workers  in  Japan  is  that  of  the  causes  of  so  much  nervous 
exhaustion.  The  problem  does  not  affect  any  one  denomination, 
for  the  inquiry  which  was  made  the  ba.sis  of  the  editorial  quoted 
above  covered  all  missionaries  in  Japan.  The  prevalence  of 
neurasthenia  cannot  therefore  be  referred  to  lack  of  examination 
or  care  in  the  selection  of  candidates.  Certainly  in  our  own 
Board  the  danger  of  any  lack  of  nervous  balance  has  been  recog- 
nized and  every  effort  made  for  many  years  to  prevent  the  ac- 
ceptance of  any  candidates  whose  record  was  not  clear  in  that 
regard.  In  our  experience  it  is  certainly  true  that  a particular 
group  of  our  appointees,  namely,  the  unmarried  women,  is  prone 
to  disability  from  one  form  or  another  of  this  affection.  When 
one  sets  out  to  seek  the  causes  of  the  disorder  he  finds  it  extreme- 
ly difficult  to  determine  them.  A number  of  contribiiting  fac- 
tors are  easily  discernible. 

The  immediate  preliminaries  of  the  missionary’s  life  are  often 
a severe  drain  on  the  nervous  system.  The  young  candidate  pre- 
•sents  her.self  at  the  conclusion  of  a long  period  of  hard  study  in 
school  and  college,  usually  strenuous  ju.st  in  proportion  to  the 
depth  and  sincerity  of  the  missionary'  impul.se  and  frequently 
coupled  with  activity  in  other  lines  and  especially  in  religious^ 
work,  or  she  comes  to  the  work  after  .some  years  of  depleting 
.service  in  teaching  or  .some  kindred  occupation.  She  attends  the 
spring  conference  in  New  York  and  works  to  the  limit  of  endur- 
ance in  the  varied  activities  that  are  then  compressed  into  the 
fortnight’s  program.  The  .summer  months  are  passed  in  fever- 
ish preparations  for  the  new  life  which  lies  before  her,  the  emo- 
tions d(»eply  stirred  all  this  time  by  the  pro.spect  of  the  disrup- 
tion of  all  her  ties  to  home,  friends,  and  kindred.  When  finally 
she  sets  out  on  the  long  journeA’  to  the  mission  field  she  finds 
herself  utterly  worn  out  in  mind  and  body.  Not  infrequently 
the  sea  voyage,  instead  of  giving  rest  and  opportunity  for  re- 
cuperation only  adds  to  her  trials  the  unhappy  experiences  of 
the  poor  sailor. 

Once  safely  arrived  upon  her  appointed  field,  she  is  called 
upon  to  face  two  years  of  the  most  intensive  study  in  the  effort 
to  acquire  a new  and  extremely  difficult  language  with  the  ever- 
present thought  that  her  whole  future  and  her  hope  of  ever  re- 
alizing the  aspirations  which  have  led  her  so  far  from  home 
depend  upon  her  success  in  this  effort.  Meanwhile  she  must 
pa.ss  tlirough  all  the  painful  experiences  of  homesickness  and 
the  full  revelation  of  just  what  her  taking  up  the  missionary’s 
life  must  mean  and  at  the  same  time  adapt  herself  to  conditions 
of  life  entirely  foreign  to  her  past  training.  And  all  this  time 

343 


of  stiidA'  the  new  missionary,  like  the  soldier  in  the  reserves  un- 
der the  tension  of  the  battle,  with  no  outlet  in  activity  for  pent- 
up  feelin}?,  finds  it  verj"  difficult  to  remember  that  “They  also 
serve  who  only  stand  and  wait.”  When  at  length  she  has  ac- 
quired sufficient  knowledge  of  the  language  to  begin  active  work, 
she  does  so  only  to  come  into  keener  appreciation  of  the  seem- 
ingly insuperable  difficulties  of  the  undertaking  to  which  she  has 
given  her  life.  The  first  years  of  real  missionary’  work  in  a coun- 
try like  Ja])an  must  give  rise  to  heart-searching,  such  as  she 
lias  never  known  before,  to  deep  questionings  of  the  soul  as  to 
the  reality  and  significance  of  her  Christian  faith  and  its  mean- 
ing both  to  her.self  and  the  people  to  whom  she  longs  to  min- 
ister. And  the  results  of  all  her  effort,  all  her  striving,  all  her 
jirayers?  Only  tho.se  who  have  lahorefl  through  the  last  decades 
of  mission  work  in  Japan  can  perhaps  fully  appreciate  how 
meager  they  are,  how  hardly  won.  As  one  draws  the  picture,  he 
ceases  to  wonder  that  many  break  under  the  strain.  None  but 
those  .sustained  by  a clear,  unfaltering  faith,  none  but  those  who, 
like  Pippa,  in  the  face  of  many  trials  and  deepest  discouragement 
can  still  sing, — ^“God’s  in  His  Heaven,  all’s  right  with  the 
world,”  can  win  through  under  such  conditions. 

And  yet  is  there  in  all  this  anything  peculiar  to  Japan,  is 
tills  not  the  common  experience  of  the  missionary  in  any  field? 
Is  there  in  it  the  explanation  of  the  fact,  which  will,  I think,  be 
generally  accepted,  that  the  di.sability  from  neurasthenia  in  the 
Japan  missions  is  greater  than  in  any  other  field?  In  at  lea.st 
two  regards  the  niis.sionary’s  experience  in  Japan  during  recent 
years  has  been  distinctive.  In  the  first  place  the  results,  at 
least  the  visible  results  in  professed  conversions  have  been  small 
and  hard-won  indeed,  and  yet  much  greater  than  in  lower  Siam 
and  parts  of  China.  That  fact  will  scarcely  be  questioned.  Hap- 
pily there  are  signs  of  a coming  change  in  this  regard,  and  in 
some  ipiarters  there  have  been  such  gains  as  have  greatly  en- 
couraged the  mission  workers.  In  the  second  place  there  is 
much  in  the  Japanese  character  to  make  the  work  among  them  a 
matter  of  exceeding  difficulty,  not  to  the  indifferent  to  be  sure, 
but  certainly  to  anyone  who,  like  the  missionary,  longs  to  pene- 
trate the  kindly,  smiling,  polite  outside  and  not  only  reach  but 
deeply  move  the  soul  within.  The  Japanese  character!  Who 
really  understands  it.  can  lay  it  bare,  or  analyze  it  in  such  man- 
ner as  will  make  the  missionarv’s  problem  easier?  Part,  and 
the  most  difficult  part  of  the  problem  lies  there.  One  cannot 
face  it  without  the  feeling  that  greater  wisdom  than  his  is  need- 
ed for  its  solving.  Fortunately  the  Christian  knows  where  to 
find  the  needed  help. 

What  practicable  measures  are  to  be  suggested  to  lessen  the 
disabilities  among  our  workers  in  Japan.  Still  greater  care  in 
the  selection  of  those  chosen  for  this  service,  care  not  only  as 
to  physical  soundness  and  freedom  from  any  suggestion  of  ner- 
vous weakness,  but  in  the  judgment  of  the  temperament  of  the 

344 


individual  and  her  ability  to  endure  trying  conditions.  Every- 
one who  has  attempted  it  knoAvs  how  many  unknown  quantities 
enter  into  such  a calculation  and  how  uncertain  the  result,  but 
AA'e  may  be  able  lo  accomplish  something  b}^  closer  attention  to 
these  considerations.  We  must  enjoin  upon  every  appointee  the 
need  of  .systematic,  careful,  regulation  of  her  life  Avith  the  view 
of  maintaining  nervous  equilibrium.  To  this  end  systematic  ex- 
erci.se  or  recreation  in  the  open  air  must  be  urged  as  a duty  qiiite 
as  urgent  as  any  other  part  of  her  service.  We  must  avoid  the 
isolation  of  missionaries,  so  far  as  is  consistent  Avith  the  in- 
tere.sts  of  their  work,  and  e.specially  advise  against  one  individu- 
al’s living  alone.  We  all  need  the  help  of  conversation  and  com- 
panionship. To  permit  a woman  to  liA’e  alone  in  the  midst  of 
a foreign,  indifferent,  if  not  hostile  community  is  to  invite  a 
breakdown.  Both  in  China  and  Japan  instanees  of  this  kind 
were  ob.served.  We  miist  urge  the  wisest  possible  use  of  the  an- 
nual vacation.  Tt  would  seem  to  be  the  part  of  wisdom  to  ad- 
vise that  all  .single  women  in  the  Japan  field  should  have  their 
first  furlough  at  the  end  of  five  years’  service,  instead  of  delay- 
ing this  opportunity  for  recuperation  two  years  more.  This 
may  seem  a radical  procedure,  but  in  the  face  of  our  experience 
it  appears  to  be  demanded.  If  the  first  furlough  be  granted 
after  five  years’  service,  an  eight-months’  leave  of  absence  from 
the  field,  allowing  two  months  for  the  necessan,'  travel  and  six 
months  at  home,  would  appear  to  meet  the  requirements  of  the 
situation. 

riaving  done  all  that  lies  in  our  power  to  better  conditions, 
Ave  must  as  systematically  as  possible  cultivate  in  the  mission- 
ary staff  the  right  mental  attitude  tOAvard  their  work  and  its 
trials.  The  constant  discus.sion  of  the.se  and  the  many  break- 
downs which  are  known  to  have  occurred  in  other  missions  as 
Avell  as  our  own  may  well  serve  to  breed  anticipations  of  more 
AAdiich  AAull  tend  to  produce  the  results  feared.  We  must  not 
forget  that  in  the  vevA'  fields  Avliere  disability  has  been  most  fre- 
quent, some  individuals  have  carried  through  long  terms  of  most 
efficient  .service  without  apparent  difficulty  and  families  of  vig- 
orous children  have  been  reared  under  the  same  conditions,  ver^’ 
convincing  evidence  that  the  climate  and  living  conditions  are 
not  especially  unfavorable  for  our  people.  Finally  the  pra3'ers 
of  all  GckI’s  people  .should  be  given  that  He  Avill  not  only  richly 
bless  and  sustain  these  faithful  seiwants,  but  that  in  His  good 
time  He  will  open  the  hearts  of  the  people  of  Japan  and  draw 
them  into  His  kingdom  and  to  their  support.  I).  B. 


345 


7.  PKOI’ERTY,  TREAST:RY  ANT>  BUSINESS  QUESTIONS 

BY  DWIGHT  H.  DAY 

We  sailed  from  Slian^jhai  for  Kobe  on  the  evening  of  October 
15th  by  the  S.  S.  “Shinyo  Maru,”  the  itineran,^  for  part  of  the 
party  in  the  Jajian  district  being  as  follows: 

Oct.  ioth-tJ)th  Shanghai  to  Kobe  (with  one  day's  de- 
lay at  Na^rasaki)  

“ 19th-21st In  and  near  Osaka 

“ 22nd-24th  In  Kyoto  

“ 25th  Railroad,  Kyoto  to  Kanazawa 

“ 20th  In  Kanazawa  

“ 27th  Railroad  to  Tokyo,  with  s»op-over  at 

Fukiii  

“ 28th-.31st  In  Tokyo  

Nov.  1st  Railroad  to  Nikko  

“ 1st- 3rd  In  Nikko 

“ .3rd  Rail  to  3’okyo  

“ 4th  In  Tokyo  and  Yokohama  

Sailed  at  :i  1’.  M.  on  S.  S.  “Sado  Maru" 
for  Seattle. 

Two  of  the  party  made  brief  visits  to  Wakayama.  Yamada  and  Tsu  ahso. 

Spent  in  the  .lapan  district  20  days 

Sj)ent  in  transportation  and  at  Nikko.  8% 

Spent  in  Stations  11%  “ 

The  above  division  into  days  and  half-days  is  necessarily  not 
exact.  Some  members  of  the  party  spent  two  or  three  days  in 
Japan  in  May  also.  Thus,  including  Shimono.seki,  where  we 
stopped  for  a few  hours  when  cro.ssing  Japan  for  Korea,  and  saw 
the  beautifully  located  Girls’  School,  some  eleven  places  in  Japan 
were  vi.sited.  The  life  and  energv’  of  the  people  are  noticeable, 
especiallj’  after  traveling  in  tropical  countries.  They  are  ex- 
pressive and  seem  to  be  much  more  out-giving  than  those  in  the 
tropics,  but  not  so  talkative  nor  given  to  fun-making  as  the  Chin- 
ese. A car-full  of  Japanese  is  a sober  crowd,  but  in  general  a 
very  polite  crowd,  except  that  the  men  have  not  learned  yet  to 
give  up  their  places  to  women.  In  both  China  and  Japan  work- 
men are  accustomed  to  make  some  vocal  sound  even  when  doing 
the  most  ordinary  work.  One  cannot  forget  the  rhythmical  sing- 
song of  the  carriers  of  burdens  which  can  be  heard  day  or  night 
in  the  streets  of  crowded  districts. 

Both  the  Chinese  and  Japanese  are  tremendous  workers,  no 
burden  or  load  seeming  too  heavy  for  the  coolie  to  carry  or 
draw.  The  Japanese  are  quick,  eager  to  leiim,  very  imitative 
and  self-confident.  Though  the  leadei‘s  in  the  Church  of  Christ 
in  Japan  in  no  way  were  self-assertive  or  assuming,  they  im- 
pressed one  as  men  who  feel  sure  of  their  ground  and  not  de- 
pendent upon  the  foreigner.  They  were  dignified  and  in  a very 
real  sense  Chri.stian  gentlemen.  This  is  as  it  should  be,  and  the 
Church  at  home  may  be  thankful  that  the  Japanese  Church  has 
become  independent  of  the  foreign  missionary.  Of  all  the  coun- 

346 


3%  (lays 


1 day 
1 


4 days 
% day 
2 days 
% day 
1 “ 


tries  visited  the  results  in  Japan  seem  the  most  substantial 
and  to  be  most  like  the  ideal  of  an  indigenous  church,  self-sup- 
j)orting,  self-governing  and  self-propagating.  The  roots  seem  to 
l)e  deepest  and  strongest  there.  Not  that  the  foreign  missionary 
is  no  longer  needed ; he  is  needed  and  will  be  needed,  perhaps,  for 
years  to  come.  In  the  smaller  places  and  in  the  country  he  is 
es.sential  to  the  establishing  and  progress  of  the  gospel.  In  the 
few  larger  centres  his  coun.sel  and  assistance  are  still  almost 
e.s.sential,  biit  his  position  has  changed;  he  is  no  longer  the  abso- 
lute director  and  leader;  he  is  rather  the  influence  than  the 
power.  The  mission  field  of  Japan  was  never  more  open  to 
young  men  of  consecration,  ediication  and  talents  and  the  finer 
these  are,  the  more  useful  the  missionary  will  be,  and  it  will  de- 
pend upon  himself  as  to  what  place  he  gains  in  the  eyes  of  the 
Church  of  Christ  and  its  leaders. 

MISSION  PROPERTY  IN  JAPAN 

As  the  Board  is  aware,  its  property  in  Japan  is  all  held  by  an 
Association,  composed  of  missionaries  called  the  Shadau.  Titles 
are  taken  in  the  name  of  this  Association  and  are  so  registered 
under  government  sanction.  This  absolutely  secures  them. 

APPEARANCE  AND  CONDITION 

For  the  most  part  the  buildings  in  the  stations  we  have  seen 
seem  substantial  and  adeipiate,  some  of  them  being  exceedingly 
attractive  and  set  in  fine  .sites.  The  Meiji  Gakuin  in  Tokyo  will 
be  greatly  improved  with  its  new  chapel  and  other  new  build- 
ings now  being  erected.  It  may  be  necessary  to  move  the  mis- 
sion center  in  Osaka  from  tlie  vicinity'  of  the  river  to  a point 
further  out,  owing  to  busine.ss  encroachments,  but  the  necessity 
is  not  yet  pressing.  In  a number  of  cases  the  buildings  need 
painting  to  put  them  into  first-rate  order  and  it  will  be  necessary 
for  the  mission  to  exercise  great  care  in  apportioning  funds  in 
order  to  properly  handle  these  repair  items  in  Class  VII. 

THE  TREASURY  AND  ACCOUNTING 

The  splendid  banking  sy.stem  of  Japan  lends  great  assistance 
to  the  centralization  of  mi.ssion  accounts  and  the  mission  treas- 
urer at  Tokyo  has  conducted  a successful  centralized  system  for 
years.  This  not  only  relieves  the  stations  of  much  detail  in  ac- 
counting, but  serves  the  New  York  oflice  well  in  the  matter  of 
]>rom])t  (juarterly  and  annual  reports. 

One  is  greatly  imjjressed  with  the  oj)portunity  which  Japan 
]»resents  just  now  to  the  preaching  and  teaching  of  the  gospel. 
Wherever  one  goes  he  hears  the  same  story  of  the  openness  of 
I)eople  to  learn  of  Christianity  and  Christ.  The  young  men  of 
dapan  are  eager  to  learn  English  and  in  a number  of  ca.ses  they 
have  bwii  invited  to  study  the  language  through  the  medium  of 
the  English  Bible.  They  gladly  join  these  cla.sses  and  pre.sently 
become  more  interested  in  Christian  truth  than  in  the  stud}^  of 
English.  Many  have  come  into  a living  faith  by  this  means  and 

347 


many  more  are  sincere  inquirers.  But  more  young  men  mission- 
aries are  needed  to  conduct  11ies<?  classes  and  relieve  the  young 
women  who  have  classes  of  forty  or  fifty  of  these  students,  more 
than  they  can  manage. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  list  llie  nwds  of  the  mis.sion  in  thLs 
report  as  they  will  be  submitted  in  other  ways  in  due  time.  No 
one  can  learn  of  these  without  thinking  how  easily  the  church  at 
home  could  fill  up  some  gaps  that  are  a real  menace,  and  estab- 
lish the  work  of  the  evangelists  and  teachers  who  have  gone  out 
from  the  homeland  and  are  conducting  this  work  of  God  with 
such  devotion  and  utter  .selflessness. 

In  Kyoto  the  evangelistic  and  chapel  work  has  increased  in 
eight  years  from  two  evangelists  tone,  a pastor)  to  seven,  with 
thirteen  preaching  places,  at  ten  of  which  baptisTU  is  adminis- 
tered. The  missionary  sa3's,  “Everybody  is  ready  to  learn  about 
Christianity.  Walking  along  the  street  or  standing  on  the  cor- 
ner I can  a.sk  a .stranger  to  look  into  it  without  any  rebuff  and 
then  he  is  given  a tract  with  the  addresses  of  the  various  preach- 
ing places  on  it  and  an  invitation  to  come  and  visit  the  one  near- 
est. The^-  are  passed  out  in  street-cars  in  the  same  way.”  Eight 
of  the  thirteen  preaching  places  are  houses,  made  over  by  a few 
changes,  and  rented  at  from  10  to  40  yen  per  month.  But  there 
is  no  permanency  in  these  as  an  owner  may  demand  the  house 
at  any  time  and  the  work  will  be  thrown  out.  The  small  congre- 
gations are  earnest  and  faithful,  but  are  utterly  unable  to  pro- 
vide their  own  buildings,  though  thej"  can  take  care  of  the  ex- 
penses after  they  are  built,  and  they  are  being  educated  to  self- 
support.  They  are  the  little  groups  that  grow  into  churches,  the 
basis  of  Christianity  in  the  nation.  To  buy  or  build  one  of  these 
street  chapels  costs  from  ii*!5,000.00  to  §10,000.00  each,  according 
to  location. 

Young  Japanese  must  be  developed  to  take  over  such  congre- 
gations. The  3'oung  men  studying  in  the  theological  schools 
.seem  intenseh’  eame.st  and  full  of  desire  to  evangelize  their 
cities  and  the  nation. 

The  Kindergartens  in  Japan  are  among  the  prize  sights  of  the 
East  and  thej"  are  most  effective  in  establishing  good  relations 
with  parents  as  well  as  in  developing  the  child.  The  Japanese 
are  awaking  to  the  fact  that  no  nation  can  truly  grow  strong 
unless  its  women  are  educated,  and  the  girls’  schools  so  ably 
conducted  bj"  our  missionary  ladies  were  most  attractive.  One 
of  them  at  least  has  some  important  property  needs  which  will 
no  doubt  come  before  the  Board  through  another  channel. 

One  studies  the  Japanese  in  their  industry,  their  eagerness  to 
learn,  their  loA’alt^"  to  emperor  and  country  and  their  great  de- 
sire to  provide  adequately'  for  their  congested  population  and 
he  prays  with  all  his  heart  that  these  fine  qualities  may  be  con- 
trolled and  ennobled  by  the  only  principles  that  will  make  them 
worth  while — those  principles  that  spring  out  of  the  life  and 
teaching  of  Christ.  The  Japan  ministers  and  the  missionaries 
in  Japan  are  shining  lights  to  mark  the  way. 

348 


IV.  THE  MISSION  IN  CHOSEN 


1.  Across  Chosen  and  Manchuria 351-355 

2.  A Visit  to  Syenchun 356-359 

3.  Some  of  the  Present  Problems  of  the  Mission  work  in 

Korea  360-380 

4.  A Review  of  the  Medical  Mission  Work  in  Korea.  ..  . 381-387 

5.  Property,  Treasury,  and  Business  Questions 388-391 


126 


130 


IV.  THE  MISSION  IN  CHOSEN 

1.  ACROSS  CHOSEN  AND  MANCHURIA 

Sept.  21,  1915. 

Eighteen  years  ago  Mr.  W.  Heniy  Grant  and  I visited  Korea 
together,  crossing  from  Nagasaki  to  Chemnlpo  on  a small  Jap- 
anese, British -hnilt,  merchant  steamer.  Last  week  we  crossed 
from  Shimonoseki  to  Fnsan,  a half  of  the  distance  of  the  old 
crossing,  on  the  ferry  of  the  Imperial  Japanese  Railways,  on  a 
beautiful  big  steamship  built  in  Japanese  ship  yards.  Then, 
we  had  to  be  carried  a.shore  at  Chemnlpo  across  wide  mud  flats. 
Last  week  we  landed  at  Pusan  at  big  docks  be.side  a large,  com- 
fortable hotel.  Then  there  was  not  one  foot  of  railway  in  Korea. 
Mr.  Grant  and  I had  to  go  up  the  coast  to  the  moiith  of  the 
Tatong  River  in  a dirty  Korean  coasting  boat  with  a perilous 
list  and  up  the  Tatong  River  in  a small  Korean  sailing  skiff  to 
Pyeng  Yang  and  from  Pyeng  Yang  walked  down  overland,  a 
week’s  jonmey  to  Seoul.  Now  the  journey  from  Pyeng  Yang 
to  Seoul  is  made  in  six  hours  and  more  than  a thousand  miles 
of  excellent  railway,  efficiently  managed,  span  the  country  from 
north  to  south  and  from  east  to  west.  Then  the  China-Japan 
war  had  just  ended  and  Korea  was  probably  at  its  lowest  ebb, 
fi-ee  from  the  restraiiit  or  guidance  of  China  or  Russia  or  Japan. 
There  were  no  public  schools,  no  good  roads,  no  fonr-wbeeled 
vehicles,  no  just  system  of  taxation  or  courts  or  government. 
The  King  was  incompetent  and  the  ruling  class  ate  the  .sub- 
.si.stence  of  the  people  and  contributed  nothing  to  the  prosperity 
or  progress  of  the  countrs’.  Now  all  this  is  changed.  With 
characteristic  efficiency,  with  the  avowed  and  most  honorable 
purpose  of  giving  to  Korea  all  that  .Tapan  has  won  and  of  melt- 
ing the  two  races  together  into  one  nationality,  the  Japanese 
have  brought  schools  and  roads  and  just  laws  and  courts,  the 
refoi'ination  of  old  abuses,  the  improvement  of  agriculture,  the 
development  of  resources,  and  the  earnest  purpose  to  advance  in 
every  way  the  prosperiD’  and  well-being  of  the  Korean  people. 
It  is  a wondei-ful  change  which  our  eyes  have  seen. 

We  were  fortunate  in  visiting  Seoiil  just  at  the  time  when 
the  Chosen  industrial  and  agricultural  exposition  was  giving 
the  ))eople  in  vivid  and  representative  form,  a picture  of  what 
the  government  had  accomplished  alreadv  and  purpo.sed  for  the 
future.  The  extensive  grounds  of  one  of  the  old  palaces,  lying 
in  useless  neglect  at  the  time  of  our  visit  eighteen  years  ago, 
had  been  utilized  for  the  exposition.  The  exposition  buildings 
were  in  the  best  and  simj)lest  taste  and  the  exhibits  would  have 
done  credit  to  any  nation  on  earth.  The  admission  fee  of  five 

351 


sen  enabled  almost  any  one  to  enter  and  the  government  was 
arranging  for  the  admission  of  many  whom  even  this  small  fee 
of  two  and  a half  cents  gold  might  exclude.  It  was  beautiful 
to  see  the  great  excursions  of  white-robed  country  people,  many 
of  them  old  men  and  women,  brought  in  by  the  government  of- 
ficials, and  carefully  escorted  in  long  processions  through  the 
sights  of  the  city  and  the  exposition.  It  was  an  inspiration  to 
watch  the  light  which  shone  in  the  faces  of  these  people  as  they 
saw  what  their  countin'^  was  capable  of.  Hundreds  of  school 
children  were  being  taken  about  in  the  same  way.  The  expo- 
sition is  an  impressive  demonstration  of  the  efficiency  and  ben- 
evolence of  the  present  government  of  Chosen. 

These  eighteen  years  have  seen  an  etpially  wonderful  progress 
in  the  work  of  the  Christian  Church  in  Korea.  Then  there  were 
two  Christian  churches  in  the  city  of  Pyeng  Yang,  a Presbyter- 
ian and  a Methodist.  The  strength  of  these  two  churches  even 
then  filled  a visitor's  heart  with  joy,  for  the  Presbyterian  church 
was  really  two  churche.s,  the  congregation  having  so  outgrown 
the  building  that  men  and  women  had  to  meet  at  separate  hours. 
Now  there  are  ten  churches  of  the  Presbyterian  and  Methodist 
Missions  in  Pyeng  Yang  among  the  Koreans  and  two  churches, 
carried  on  by  the  Japanese  Congregationalists,  one  among  the 
Koreans  and  one  among  the  Japanese.  We  spent  the  whole  of 
one  Sunday  going  about  from  church  to  church  and  from  Sun- 
day-school to  Sunday-school  and  ending  the  day  with  two  meet- 
ings. one  for  men  and  one  for  women,  that  packed  two  of  the 
largest  churches.  I wish  that  all  the  friends  of  the  work  in 
Korea  might  have  been  at  the  men’s  meeting  in  the  Central 
Church  when  two  thousand  men  and  boys  ci'owded  every  square 
foot  of  space,  and  might  have  heard  them  as  they  sang  the  hymn 
that  we  had  heard  across  the  plains  and  through  the  valleys  of 
Korea  eighteen  years  ago,  “Nothing  but  the  blood  of  Jesus.” 
Only  a few  days  before,  the  General  Assembly  of  the  Presby- 
terian Church  in  Korea  had  met  with  one  hundred  and  fifty 
delegates  from  nearly  a hundred  self-supporting  churches  and 
the  following  day  we  met  with  a large  company  of  the  Korean 
leaders  at  a feast  when  the  address  of  welcome  was  made  by 
the  secretary  of  the  Foreign  Missionary  Society  which  main- 
tains, iinder  full  support  from  the  Korean  church,  a foreign 
mission  of  its  own  in  the  Chinese  province  of  Shantung.  Here 
among  these  Korean  Christians  one  feels  the  old  apostolic  glow 
and  warmth  and  sees  Christian  churches  which  have  been  built 
up  from  the  outset  on  a New  Testament  foundation  of  evangelis- 
tic zeal  and  financial  self-support.  The  church  is  not  without  its 
problems.  It  leans  heavily  upon  missionary  guidance  and  it  is 
innocent  and  unprepared  as  yet  ^dth  regard  to  the  great  doc- 
trinal discussions  from  which  no  Christian  church  has  ever  yet 
escaped.  But  the  child-like  faith  and  the  living  experience  are 
here  and  the  Spirit  of  God  will  surely  make  these  ready  for  all 
that  they  must  be  prepared  to  meet. 

352 


In  Seoul,  as  in  Pyeng  Yang,  the  evidences  of  life  and  growth 
are  on  every  side.  Christian  churches  are  scattered  all  over  the 
city.  Eighteen  years  ago  a meeting  of  students  would  have 
brought  together  only  a small  handful  of  boys  from  the  two 
small  mission  schools.  Last  Friday  night,  fifteen  hundred  stu- 
dents packed  the  large  hall  of  the  Young  Men’s  Christian  Asso- 
ciation and  hundreds  more  could  not  get  in  and  at  the  close  of 
the  meeting  in  re.sponse  to  old  Mr.  Yi’s  appeal,  almost  fifteen 
hundred  students  must  have  raised  their  hands  to  indicate  that 
they  were  already,  or  desired  to  become,  disciples  of  Jesus 
Christ.  This  old  Mr.  Yi  was  at  one  time  in  the  Korean  Lega- 
tion at  Washington.  He  is  the -man  who,  as  member  of  a large 
Korean  delegation  taken  to  Japan  last  year  by  the  government, 
closed  a conference  which  they  were  holding  with  the  Minister 
of  Education  by  a little  speech  of  appreciation  which  he  ended 
by  saying,  “Your  Excellency,  I have  wondered  whether  you  have 
in  your  heart  great  peace  under  the  heavy  responsibilities  that 
you  bear.  Surely  beneath  these  burdens  you  must  often  desire 
such  peace.  In  my  own  heart  1 enjoy  it.  1 find  that  Jesus  Christ 
is  able  to  give  me  perfect  peace  at  all  times  and  in  all  things.  1 
wish  that  your  Excellency  might  also  have  this  peace.” 

The  expansion  of  the  mi.ssions  in  their  outward  equipment  is 
as  striking  as  the  inward  and  outward  growth  of  the  church. 
The  new  Pierson  Memorial  Bible  School  in  memorv"  of  T)r.  Arthur 
T.  Pierson  is  rising  in  a beautiful  situation  looking  out  over 
what,  on  our  previous  visit,  was  the  little  used  Mulberry  Palace 
of  the  Emperor,  now  largely  devoted  to  .school  purposes.  The 
new  Fnion  Christian  College  in  Seoul  is  in  process  of  acquiring 
a magnificent  site  of  nearly  a square  mile  on  the  out.skirts  of 
the  city.  Where  fifteen  years  ago  our  mission  had  at  Yun  Mot 
Kol  two  old  adapted  Korean  buildings,  there  now  stand  half  a 
dozen  snbstantial  brick  residences,  a great  church,  four  large 
brick  buildings,  hon.sing  the  boys’  and  girls’  schools.  In  place 
of  an  old  hospital  building  there  riso^  today  on  an  overlooking 
hill  near  the  railway  station  the  enlarging  buildings  of  the  Sev- 
erance hospital,  medical  college  and  school  for  nurses.  At  Pyeng 
Yang  around  the  three  Korean-style  buildings,  standing  amid 
the  millet  fields,  which  we  found  in  1807,  has  grown  up  a great 
compound  of  .seventv’-five  acres  with  academies  and  higher 
.schools  and  a theological  seminary  and  a beautiful  home  for 
the  missionaries’  children,  making  it  possible  for  the  missionarv' 
families  to  be  held  together  as  they  could  not  be  in  the  old  days, 
with  hospital,  industrial  buildings  and  gardens  and  orchards 
and  all  the  equipment  by  which,  in  spite  of  its  effort  to  keep  its 
work  as  simply  and  purely  evangelistic  as  pos.sible,  the  mission 
has  been  drawn  ont  to  influence  for  good  the  whole  life  of  the 
people. 

The  annexation  of  Chosen  to  .Tapan,  bringing  with  it  so  many 
and  .so  great  bles.sings  in  the  government  and  development  of 

353 


12 — Report  of  Deputation. 


the  country,  has  brought  with  it  also,  and  quite  naturally,  new 
problems  regarding  the  mission  work,  involving  the  adjustment 
of  mission  schools  and  religious  propagandism  to  the  regulations 
of  the  government  on  these  subjects,  corres])ondiiig  in  pai-t 
to  similar  regulations  in  Japan.  Such  readjustments  are  not 
always  easy  but,  approached  in  the  right  spirit  on  each  side, 
they  ought  not  to  be  too  difficult  and  there  is  no  reason  what- 
ever why  they  cannot  be  happily  worked  out  in  Chosen  where 
the  mi.ssions  on  their  side  have  no  aim  but  to  teach  the  people 
a religion  which  makes  men  law-abiding  and  loyal  and  to  pro- 
mote the  process  of  national  progress  and  racial  unity,  and 
where  the  government  on  its  side  welcomes  the  spread  of  true 
religion  and  is  ready  to  give  ever}’  liberty  consistent  with  its 
aim  of  complete  assimilation  of  the  people.  We  are  coming 
away  from  Chosen  with  full  confidence  in  the  good  faith  and 
high  purpo.ses  of  the  forces  which  are  working  for  the  betterment 
of  the  land. 

The  overland  journey  from  Seoul  to  Peking  by  way  of  Muk- 
den which  would  have  taken  two  or  three  months  under  the 
most  favorable  conditions  in  1S07,  we  are  making  now  in  three 
days  of  travel  and  that  can  be  cut  down  two-thirds  on  the  ex- 
press train.  We  have  added  one  dav  in  order  to  stop  over  Sun- 
day at  Mukden  with  the  missionaries  of  the  Scotch  and  Irish 
Presbyterian  Churches  and  see  the  great  work  which  they  are 
doing.  We  have  now,  after  a Sunday  with  Dr.  Chri.stie  and  his 
associate.s,  a new  faith  in  the  resurrection.  The  Boxer  upris- 
ing wiped  out  ever}’  last  vestige  of  what  the  missionaries  had 
built  up  in  Mukden,  but  the  living  power  by  which  Cod  raised 
Christ  from  the  dead,  has  raised  up  out  of  the  ashes  of  1000 
such  a work  of  life  as  could  onlv  spring  from  death  In*  the  might 
of  Cod.  Hundreds  of  government  students  poured  in  to  the 
great  church  on  Sunday  morning  to  hear  the  go.spel  and  over 
two  hundred  of  them  walked  half  a mile  afterwards  to  the  after 
meeting.  A hundred  medical  students  are  coming  to  the  medi- 
cal college  which  Dr.  Christie  has  built  up  almo.st  single  handed 
and  fifty  thousand  patients  a year  throng  into  the  hospital. 

From  the  old  capital  of  the  Manchus,  dirty,  decrepit,  un- 
changing, we  came  out  across  a great  pitiful  area  where  one 
of  China’s  wandering  rivers  had  left  its  old  bed  and  was  roam- 
ing lawles.sly  across  the  countr}’,  spreading  ruin  over  hundreds 
of  square  miles.  With  the  mud  piled  deep  over  their  farms,  the 
peoi)le  were  warring  with  the  stream  to  shut  it  back  into  seiwi- 
tude.  All  the  rest  of  the  day  to  Shan  Hai  Kuan  we  crossed 
broad  plains  like  our  own  northwe.st,  with  millet  instead  of 
corn.  The  train  stopi^ed  for  the  night  at  Shan  Hai  Kuan  and 
we  went  out  in  the  moonlight  to  the  great  wall  of  China  and 
walked  along  its  battlements  and  looked  away  at  its  dim  out- 
line crossing  the  plain  and  climbing  the  hills.  It  possessed  still 
the  massive,  solid  grandeur  of  its  past  but  it  lay  there  in  the 

354 


dim  light  crumbling  away  in  decay  and  neglect,  unrelated  to 
the  great  movement  and  uses  of  humanity,  rich  in  memory  and 
stuff  for  human  service,  but  dumb,  nnlighted.  What  truer  sym- 
bol of  China  could  there  be?  It  is  daytime  now  and  the  rich 
autumn  sunshine  is  falling  on  the  fanners  gathering  in  their 
crops  and  we  see  poor,  huge  China  like  the  wall,  wandering,  in 
the  half  light,  and  whither?  Surely  God  will  guide  her. 


E.  E.  S. 


2.  A VISIT  TO  SYENCHUN 


En  route  by  rail  to  Mukden, 
September  18,  1915. 

As  we  stood  on  the  platform  at  Syenohun  this  mominj;  at 
eight  o’clock  waiting  for  the  through  train  from  Seoul  to  Muk- 
den, Manchuria,  we  could  easily  imagine  we  were  in  Minnesota. 
The  crisp  air  had  “life  in  it.”  Around  us  in  a circle  stood  Pastor 
Wang  and  Pa.stor  Kim  and  a group  of  elders  and  members  of 
the  churches  in  Syenchun,  who  had  come  down  to  bid  us  good- 
bye. In  the  two  or  three  minutes  available  we  introduced  Mr. 
Speer  all  around,  received  the  courteous  farewells  of  the  Ko- 
reans, and  boarded  the  train  a re-uited  and  happy  party.  Cir- 
cumstances had  landed  some  of  us  at  Syenchun  the  night  before, 
much  to  our  delight,  accompanied  by  a member  of  the  station. 
Rev.  George  S.  McCune.  Having  had  supper  on  the  perfectly 
good  “American”  dining  car,  we  were  ready,  on  getting  off  the 
train  at  six-thirty  in  the  evening,  to  be  shown  about  the  mission 
compound. 

Along  the  winding,  hard  clay  streets  and  path.s,  through  the 
little  country  village  we  walked,  followed  by  a company  of 
Korean  church  members  who  had  come  to  meet  us  and  gazed  at 
by  the  Tillage  folk  with  such  curiosity  and  interest,  that  ap- 
parently it  was  not  so  much  a case  of  our  having  come  to  see 
the  Korean.s,  as  it  was  the  Koreans  coming  out  to  see  us.  The 
center  of  interest  was  Mrs.  Bovaird,  the  lady  of  our  parh'.  As 
we  turned  into  a straight  street  which  evidently  had  been  built 
.since  the  Japanese  occupation  and  under  their  direction,  we 
were  told  that  the  handsome  and  substantial-looking  building 
standing  squarely  acro.ss  it  and  facing  us  was  the  Hugh  O’Neill, 
Jr.,  Boys’  Academy.  The  building  had  been  taken  as  the  start- 
ing point  for  the  new  street  which  leads  straight  away  from  its 
front  steps.  Our  pleasure  in  seeing  and  inspecting  the  plant 
was  enhanced  b}'^  recalling  the  generosity  and  devotion  of  the 
friend  at  home  who  had  established  this  so  fitting  a memorial 
of  her  son.  We  stopped  only  a moment  at  ^Ir.  McCune’s  house, 
pressing  on  to  see  as  much  of  the  en\ironnients  as  possible,  in 
the  half-light  of  the  early  evening.  Here  was  a new  grey  brick 
building,  the  home  of  the  Industrial  Department  of  the  Acad- 
emy, and  where  machinery  will  shortly  be  installed ; farther  on 
is ’the  farmstead,  where  Holstein  and  Ayrshire  cattle  are  warm- 
ly housed,  in  charge  of  a Korean  keeper  living  on  the  premises; 
and  now  we  scramble  up  hill  to  the  brick  kilns  which  constitute 
a small  settlement  by  themselves,  made  up  just  now  of  Chinese 
working  under  a contractor  who  is  tiwing  to  fill  some  rush 

356 


orders  for  brick  and  tile  for  the  new  Boys’  Dormitory,  in  process 
of  being  erected.  It  was  getting  dark  rapidly;  bnt  we  examined 
the  whole  ])lant  amid  the  smiles  of  tlie  (''hinese  wlio  stood  about 
cnrion.s  and  apparently  amused  at  our  interest  in  the  processes 
of  mannfacture.  Beyond  and  surrounding  all  this  central  com- 
pound, are  between  fifty  and  sixty  acres  of  garden  and  farm 
land,  all  in  splendid  cultivation,  the  work  of  the  boys,  and  fur- 
nishing the  food  consumed  by  the  school.  This  laud  extends  to 
the  surrounding  hills,  over  and  beyond  which  are  some  eighty 
or  ninety  acres  more,  belonging  to  the  school,  which  are  rented 
each  year,  and  which  produce  an  annual  income  very  necessary 
for  its  current  expenses. 

Coming  down  from  the  knoll  where  the  kilns  are,  we  entered 
the  inner  compound  of  the  Girls’  School.  None  of  the  buildings 
here  are  new  or  modern,  being  one-story,  Korean  in  architec- 
ture, and  long  and  rambling.  The  girls  had  just  gotten  back 
for  the  beginning  of  the  fall  term,  and  seeing  tie  door  of  one 
suite  open  and  the  light  from  the  kerosene  lamp  shining  out,  we 
stopped,  with  one  of  the  Korean  matrons,  and  looked  in.  Two 
girls,  very  neat  and  clean  looking  in  their  white  dresses,  their 
black  hair  oiled  and  j)lastered  down  in  perfect  lines,  were  seated 
on  the  hard  clay  floor,  ironing.  This  process  consisted  in  hold- 
ing the  light  cloth  garment  up  betv\'een  them,  and  smoothing  it 
over  with  what  h>oked  like  a small  iron  frv’ing  pan,  filled  with 
re<l-hot  charcoal,  llow  they  could  keep  the  folds  of  cloth  from 
falling  over  on  to  the  hot  coal  as  they  worked  was  a wonder  to 
us.  The  young  matron  hurric*d  otf  to  another  suite,  where  she 
showed  us,  a few  minutes  later,  how  they  dried  and  ironed  the 
garments  by  pounding  them  with  clubs,  about  the  size  of  a 
policeman’s  “billy,”  laying  them  over  a hard  surface. 

As  we  ]>asse(l  on,  we  heard  the  bells  of  the  famous  North  and 
South  Churches  in  the  village  (only  a few  hundred  yards  apart) 
pealing  out  a call  to  the  Christians  scattered  over  the  surround- 
ing hilks,  to  come  in  for  a special  meeting.  Pastor  Wang  had 
told  us  at  the  station  that  this  meeting  had  been  planned  as  a 
welcome  to  us  on  receij)t  of  Mr.  McCiine’s  telegram  from  Pyeng 
Yang  in  the  afternoon,  that  we  would  arrive  that  night.  We 
had  time  to  stej)  into  the  lK*autiful  new  “In  His  Name”  Hospital, 
conducte<l  by  Dr.  Sharrocks,  who  was  in  Pyeng  Y'ang  at  the 
mission  meeting.  Both  the  Korean  doctors  had  already  gone 
to  the  church,  but  an  immaculately  clean  Korean  nurse  smiling- 
ly showed  us  about.  On  looking  into  the  women’s  ward,  Mr. 
McCune  remarked  that  one  of  the  patients  looked  as  though 
.she  had  just  jnmi)e(l  into  ImhI  from  lying  on  the  floor  under  it — 
that  frequently  Dr.  Sharrocks  found  a woman  lying  under  her 
clean  white  b^,  in  preference  to  lying  ujxm  it.  On  the  wall  of 
the  hospital  office,  hung  a memorial,  presented  to  Dr.  Sharrocks 
on  May  14,  1915,  by  the  members  of  the  churches  of  Syen  Chun 
which  read  as  follows: 


357 


‘'‘'congratulations 

“At  (he  certMiioiiy  upon  the  coiiipletioi)  of  t)ie  Mi  Toii<^  fBeanly 
o^f  (he  East)  Hosj)i1al.  Twenty  Ihoiisjuid  yen,  and  more  than 
.■>00  days  were  sj»ent  in  (he  erection  of  tlie  'glorious,  cdond-pierc- 
iiif>’  edifice,  tliat  the  lives  of  men  on  the  way  to  the  {^rave  might 
he  saved.  It  is  not  in  tlie  poAvei-  of  men  to  repay  the  grace  of 
tlie  henefactoi’s ; but  heaven  will  give  them  all  hlessing.s  forever.” 

The  women  of  the  Occidental  Board  may  well  feel  a deep  sat- 
isfaction in  this  admirable  plant  and  its  equipment.  Likewisi^ 
would  it  be  difficult  to  meet  a great  need  more  completely  than 
the  Woman’s  Board  of  Philadelphia  has  done  in  providing  the 
sj)lendid  red  brick  building  for  the  Women’s  Bible  Institute. 
When  not  being  used  by  Avomen,  it  affords  accommodations  also 
for  the  Men’s  Bible  Institute.  There  are  also  Korean  buildings 
for  the  Women’s  School,  as  it  is  called,  conducted  by  Mrs.  Mc- 
Cune  and  Mrs.  Lampe  where  married  women  and  widows  are 
taught  the  Word  of  God,  and  in.structed  in  domestic  science 
and  industrial  work.  Small  native  buildings  for  the  children’s 
schools,  and  seven  comfortable  residences  for  missionaries,  com- 
plete the  equiiunent  of  the  Station. 

It  AA'as  a gorgeous  autumn  evening;  the  air  had  a tang  in  it 
such  as  one  never  feels  in  the  tropics,  and  the  moon,  bright  as 
.silver,  made  everything  lovely  Avith  a bluish  light.  We  wended 
our  way  doAvn  to  the  South  Church  catching  as  we  walked  along 
the  refrain  from  the  hymn  which  the  congregation  was  singing. 
As  we  mounted  the  steps  to  the  platform  where  Pastor  Wang 
and  Pastor  Kim  stood  ready  to  greet  us,  our  joy  mounted  high 
at  the  sight  of  more  than  a thousand  men  and  women,  follow- 
ers of  Christ.  At  a Avord  from  the  veteran  Wang,  they  arose 
from  the  cross-legged  position  on  the  matted  floor  and  stood, 
as  a token  of  Christian  greeting  to  the  visitors.  The  piaster 
then  expres.sed  in  a few'  graceful  words,  AA'hat,  he  said  was  the 
pleasure  of  the  whole  congregation,  on  our  visit  among  them. 
Mr.  McCuue  announced  his  favorite  hymn,  “Glory  in  His  Name,” 
Avhich  it  seems  he  asks  them  to  sing  on  every  special  occasion, 
and  a smile  Avent  around.  The  singing  lacked  nothing  of  spirit 
and  fervor,  but  was  not  exactly  melodious.  The  people  of  Laos 
are  the  be.st  singers  Ave  have  heard.  We  don’t  know  what  he 
said,  but  Mr.  McCune  described  and  then  introduced  us  each 
one  “for  a word  or  two,”  beginning  with  Mrs.  Bovaird.  She 
stood  on  the  side  of  the  platform  in  front  of  the  women,  (the 
Avomen  alT  sitting  on  one  side  of  Church,  the  men  on  the  other, 
Avith  a white  cloth  curtain  hung  betAveen  i for  while  she  could  be 
seen  by  the  men,  it  would  have  violated  the  proprieties  had  .she 
stood  facing  them.  In  responding  to  our  words  of  greeting 
and  exhortation  and  encouragement.  Pastor  Kim  said  that  he 
wanted  to  thank  us  for  the  etfort  we  had  made  to  Ausit  them, 
and  for  the  words  we  had  spoken ; that  he''  could  see  from  the 
expression  of  the  faces  how  happy  the  congregation  were  over 

358 


the  meeting;  that  the  Board,  which  we  represented,  was  the 
first  to  send  Oliristian  missionaries  to  Korea,  and  though  he 
had  known  of  the  Board  for  years,  lie  had  not  seen  before,  any- 
one connected  directly  with  its  management.  That  the  Chris- 
tians felt  an  interest  in  and  gratitude  toward  those  in  America 
who  had  part  in  sending  the  Gosjiel  to  Korea,  and  they  were 
eager  to  see  and  to  honor  them.  He  realized,  however,  that  it 
was  the  grace  of  God  that  had  sent  them  the  truth,  and  that  it 
had  not  come  from  men,  and  they  wanted  to  give  God  alone 
the  g*lory,  but  still  that  grace  had  worked  in  the  hearts  of  people 
in  America,  and  they  had  responded  to  it  and  had  .sent  them  the 
Gosjiel  and  the  Christians  of  Korea  would  endeavor  to  respond 
in  like  manner,  and  give  tlie  Gospel  to  their  people.  As  one 
of  the  vi.sitors  had  said,  their  lives  and  manner  of  living  must 
be  the  most  powerful  preaching  they  could  do.  That  it  was  a 
great  .source  of  comfort  to  believe,  as  another  of  the  visitors  had 
pointed  out  that  this  wonderful  life  which  they  had  come  to 
know  was  to  go  on  forever,  and  was  never  to  be  taken  away.  We 
vi.sitors  asked  each  other  afterward  if  any  more  apt  and  spiritual 
word  could  have  been  spoken.  At  the  clo.se  of  the  meeting,  a 
large  group  of  women  gathered  about  Mrs.  Bovaird,  eager  to 
greet  her  jiersonally  and  have  her  smile  on  them,  the  difficulties 
of  the  language  being  no  bar. 

We  went  to  the  homes  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  McCune  and  Mr.  and 
^Irs.  Whittemore  for  the  night,  thankful  to  God  for  our  experi- 
ences in  Syenchun,  the  center  of  a district  containing  70  self- 
supporting  Churches  of  Chi-ist.  D.  H.  D. 


359 


3.  SOME  OF  THE  PRESENT  PROBLEMS  OF  THE  MIS- 
SION WORK  IN  KOREA. 

The  boat  on  which  we  sailed  from  Manila  to  Japan  on  our 
way  to  Korea  was  one  day  late  in  leaving,  encountered  rough 
weather  and  was  three  days  overdue  in  reaching  Nagasaki.  This 
cut  down  our  brief  visit  to  Korea  to  seven  days  and  made  it 
impossible  for  our  party  to  visit  any  of  the  stations  except 
Seoul  and  Pyeng  Yang  and  Syen  Chun.  Hr.  Bovaird  was  able 
to  go  with  Dr.  Avison  to  the  meeting  of  the  Australian  Pres 
byterian  mission  in  Masampo.  I sjjent  four  days  at  the  mission 
meeting  at  P^  eng  Yang  and  the  rest  of  the  time  on  trains  or  in 
Seoul.  We  asked  the  mission  not  to  consider  our  coming  as 
in  any  sense  of  the  word  a visit  to  the  Korea  Mission  but  simply 
as  an  afternoon  call  on  our  waj’  home  from  what  had  been  real 
visits  to  Siam  and  the  Philippines.  Short,  however,  as  our  time 
in  Korea  was  and  insufficient  for  the  pui'poses  of  a true  mis- 
sion visitation,  it  was  nevertheless  a time  of  great  profit  to  us 
and  made  it  possible  at  least  to  gather  those  impres'sions  and 
to  enjoy  that  refreshment  of  old  friendship  and  to  feel  the 
weight  of  those  facts  for  which  a long  time  is  not  necessary.  In 
reporting  on  our  brief  stay  in  Korea  we  must  carefully  abstain, 
accordingly,  from  forming  or  uttei'ing  any  of  those  impressions 
or  judgements  for  which  a prolonged  and  intimate  visit  to  all 
the  stations  of  the  mission  would  be  the  indispensable  prepa- 
ration. 

We  found  letters  waiting  in  Fusan  requesting  us  to  come 
directly  to  the  mission  meeting  in  Pyeng  Yang  to  have  confer- 
ence with  the  mission  before  visiting  Seoul  and  meeting,  as  we 
found  it  was  expected  that  we  should,  wdth  the  Japanese  officials. 
This  was  obviously  the  wise  course.  In  Pyeng  Yang  there  were 
rare  opportunities  of  meeting  with  the  Korean  leaders  of  the 
church  and  of  coming  in  touch  with  their  spirit.  The  mission 
also  kindly  rearranged  its  docket  so  as  to  bring  forward  first  the 
questions  of  the  government  general  ordinance  No.  83,  provid- 
ing regulations  for  religious  propagation,  and  the  government 
regulations  concerning  private  schools,  and  the  question  of  the 
union  college  in  Seoul  and  the  relation  of  the  mission  thereto, 
so  that  we  might  know,  as  fully  as  the  time  allowed,  the  mind 
of  the  mission  on  these  three  questions  before  returning  to  Seoul 
for  any  conferences  there  with  government  officials  or  with  the 
representatives  of  other  missions  interested  in  the  college.  It 
will  be  simplest  to  speak  separately  of  each  of  these  subjects. 

1.  T)ie  Korea  tv  Church. 

It  has  been  a wonderful  privilege  to  feel  again  the  glow  of 
Christian  experience  and  the  zeal  in  evangelistic  service  which 

360 


characterize  the  church  in  Korea,  to  see  the  numerous  churches 
and  their  crowded  congregations,  the  careful  and  efficient  organi- 
zation, the  strong  sense  of  native  responsibility,  the  acceptance 
of  the  idea  of  self-support,  the  processes  of  pastoral  care  and 
congregational  education,  the  admirable  system  of  supervision 
and  the  Biblical  training  of  church  leadership,  and  the  many 
other  elements  of  church  life  and  mission  policy  which  make 
Korea  one  of  the  most  interesting  and  inspiring  of  mission  fields. 
If  one’s  hope  of  seeing  strong,  living,  self-maintaining,  self-direct- 
ing churches  on  the  mission  field  is  dimmed  by  experiences  in 
other  lands,  that  hope  revives  when  one  visits  Korea  and  Japan. 

All  the  Presbyterian  churches  in  Korea  are  united  as  in  Japan 
in  a single  church  body.  In  Japan  the  chief  court  of  the  church 
is  still  called  a synod  but  in  Korea  it  is  now  a general  assembly, 
the  fourth  meeting  of  which  was  held  at  Taikti  just  before  we 
arrived  and  was  attended  by  1.51  delegates.  "V^ile  both  the 
retiring  and  new  moderators  were  missionaries  and  missionaries 
were  chairmen  of  almost  all  the  committees,  all  who  were  pres- 
ent rejoiced  at  the  active  part  taken  by  the  Korean  members 
who  realize  that  the  church  is  a Korean  church  in  which  they 
have  the  help  of  foreign  missionaries  and  not  a foreign  church 
in  which  missionaries  have  their  help. 

According  to  the  stati.stical  records  of  the  third  General 
As.sembly  of  1914  there  are  224  organized  churches  with  91 
Korean  pa.stors,  .‘1.‘12  elders,  2S1  helpers.  .59  men  evangelists,  135 
colporteurs,  1G3  women  evangelists.  1773  church  leaders,  3,479 
unordained  deacons,  5,130  Sunday  School  teachers,  and  over 

5.000  “other  officers.”  There  are  1580  unorganized  groups,  1460 
prayer  meeting  places  and  1647  church  buildings.  There  were 

79.000  Sunday  School  scholars  and  82,000  attendants  at  Bible 
classes  which  are  really  Bible  conferences  held  in  various  centers 
for  extended  periods  of  time.  The  total  number  of  communi- 
cants was  60.047.  The  total  number  of  catechumens  was  24,890 
of  whom  9,423  had  been  receivefl  during  the  year.  The  evan- 
gelistic expenditures  of  the  church  were  Yen  12,181,  the  building 
exjMMiditures,  Yen  47,800,  the  school  ex]>enditures.  Yen  .58,290, 
and  the  other  expenditures.  Yen  84,393. 

1.  The.se  figures  so  full  of  encouragement  sugge.st  also  on 
more  careful  study  some  of  the  present  problems  of  the  work. 
In  1912  for  example  the  total  communicants  were  53,008  and 
the  ntiinber  baptized  8,836.  In  1913  the  total  communicants 
were  .55.557  and  the  number  baptized  7,274.  In  1914  the  total 
communicants  were  60,047  and  the  number  baptized  7516.  In 
other  words  although  during  the.se  three  years  the  additions  to 
the  church  were  23,626  the  ncd  gain  rejmrted  in  communicants 
is  only  7,039.  The  gross  loss  lias  been  twice  the  net  gain.  There 
is  a problem  of  leakage  which  has  already  begun  to  give  con- 
cern to  .some  of  the  observing  workers.  We  had  a strange 
and  jiei-plexing  illustration  of  the  fact  during  our  vi.sit  in 

861 


Pyeiijf  Yang.  Sunday  evening  two  large  union  meetings  were 
held,  one  of  men  and  the  other  of  women,  f spoke  to  the  meet- 
ing of  men  in  the  Central  Church  Avhere  there  were  fully  2.000 
present  and  recalling  my  previous  visit  to  Pyeng  Yang,  eigliteen 
years  ago,  asked  how  many  Christians  there  were  in  the  audi- 
ence who  had  keen  members  of  the  church  in  Pyeng  Yang 
eighteen  years  before.  Only  sixteen  held  up  their  hands.  We 
were  all  amazed  and  Dr.  Woffett,  who  was  interpreting,  explain- 
ed the  matter  again  but  still  only  sixteen  indicatwl  that  they 
were  among  the  Pveng  Yang  Christians  of  eighteen  years  ago. 
There  were  several  thousands  of  Christians  in  Pyeng  Yang  then 
and  it  is  inconceivable  that  of  the  men  of  that  time  onlv  sixb^ 
should  be  living  now.  When  one  has  allowed  for  all  the  other 
explanations  that  may  be  suggesterl  there  still  T-emains  the 
apparently  certain  fact,  as  indicated  also  by  the  statistics  of 
the  Oeneral  A.ssembly,  and  by  lobservations  <of  various  mis- 
sionaries on  the  results  of  the  revivals  in  the  clmrches,  that 
there  is  a tremendous  leakage  in  the  church  which  would  have 
drawn  attention  long  ago  if  it  had  not  been  for  the  very  large 
annual  accessions  which  have  more  than  made  iip  for  the  lo.ss. 

2.  This  loss  is  the  more  strpnge  when  one  remembers  the 
careful  pastoral  oversight  of  the  Korean  churches.  Sabbath 
attendance  record  books  are  carefully  kept  in  the  various  con- 
gregations. This  is  the  case  even  among  the  Korean  congrega- 
tions in  Manchuria  where  “the  attendance  is  marked  by  the 
Chinese  numeral  for  six,  the  dot  being  for  Sabbath  morning, 
the  cross  mark  for  Sabbath  afternoon,  the  left  down  stroke  for 
Sabbath  night  and  the  right  down  stroke  for  prayer  meeting.” 
In  these  Manchurian  churches  each  worshipper  reads  a verse  of 
Scripture  in  turn  and  then  recites  it  the  next  Sabbath.  Both 
the  Sunday  School  and  Bible  Class  attendance  in  Korea  greatly 
exceeds  the  number  of  the  communicants,  confirming  what  is 
known  to  be  tbe  fact  that  the  Korean  Christians  are  taught  the 
Bible.  T have  never  met  in  any  other  field  as  careful  and  effec- 
tive ]>rocesses  of  pastoral  oversight  and  training  as  one  meets 
in  Korea.  But  a Avriter  in  the  “Korea  Mission  Field”  coni])lains 
that  after  a comparative  study  of  the  courses  used  in  Bible 
classes  and  institutes  in  four  missions  and  nine  different  sta- 
tions in  Korea  he  finds  a woeful  need  of  better  correlation  and 
system.  He  says  “that  not  only  Avas  there  no  similarity  in  the 
courses  of  study  betAveen  the  stations  of  the  same  mission  but 
that  frequently  in  a given  station  no  attempt  had  been  made 
to  correlate  the  courses  of  that  station.”  As  a result  of  his  study 
this  writer  suggested  courses  of  stiidy  for  three  different  tA^pes 
of  classes  for  men  and  women  covering  ten  years.  Probably  the 
Korean  mission,  in  spite  of  irregularities  among  the  stations, 
has  done  more  than  any  other  mission  to  carry  out  such  con- 
secutive and  well  planned  Bible  teaching,  and  perhaps  the  irregu- 
larities among  the  stations  ai‘e  no  greater  than  are  proper  to 

362 


allow  for  the  free  play  of  individuality.  But  with  the  great 
growth  of  the  church  and  the  effort  on  the  part  of  the  mis- 
sionaries to  hold  up  the  standards,  and  to  this  end  not  to  lay 
off  responsibility  too  rapidly,  the  burden  has  probably  become 
too  heavy  in  many  cases,  with  resulting  loss.  Undoubtedly  also 
in  Korea  as  everywhere,  the  hearts  of  some  grow  cold  and  enthu- 
siasm wanes  and  the  leakage  results  of  which  T have  spoken. 

.3.  While  there  are  224  organized  churches  only  eighteen  of 
these  have  Korean  pastors.  Fifty-seven  have  Korean  co-pastors 
and  149  are  without  Korean  pastors.  Eightv-two  missionaries 
are  set  down  in  the  statistics  of  the  assembly  as  pastors  and 
over  nine-tenths  of  the  Korean  churches  are  under  their  pas- 
toral authority.  This  is  a very  different  situation  from  that 
in  -Tanan  where  onlv  those  church  organizations  are  regarded 
as  fully  organized  churches  entitled  to  presbvterial  representa- 
tion and  responsibility  which  are  self-supporting  and  have  their 
own  .Japanese  pastors.  The  problem  of  transfendng  the  pas- 
toral care  of  the  churches  to  native  ministers  with  the  assur- 
ance that  the  work  will  be  righth*  done,  thus  relieving  the  for- 
eign missionaries  from  pastoral  activitv  and  setting  them  free 
for  the  distinctively  aggressive  work  of  missions,  is  one  of  the 
living  problems  in  every  mission  field  and  is  not  less  living  .in 
Korea.  Indeed  it  is  more  so.  for  the  burden  is  becoming  too 
heavy  for  many  of  the  missionaries  to  bear.  Tt  is  quite  true 
tliat  the  pastoral  work  which  the  missionaries  have  to  do  is  not 
confined  to  a single  congregation,  it  is  ratlier  the  work  of 
apostolic  and  episcopal  oversiglit,  but  it  is  greatly  to  be  desired 
tliat  lK)th  in  the  j)resbvteries  and  in  tlie  general  assembly,  in  tbe 
ecclesiastical  administration  of  the  chnrcli  and  in  the  instruc- 
tion and  oversight  of  established  Thristian  congi-egations,  tlie 
Koi-ean  ministers  should  be  qualified  and  led  on  to  do  what  the 
ministers  of  the  Fhurch  of  Tlirist  in  .Japan  are  doing,  leaving 
th(‘  missionaries  free  for  the  edncational  service  of  the  church 
and  f(M-  the  immense  task  of  fi-esli  evangelization  bevond  the 
bonnds  of  the  existing  Christian  commnnities,  which  are  but 
an  insignificant  fraction  of  the  entire  population. 

4.  ^fany  of  the  missionaries  feel  that  the  Sunday  Schools 
present  a real  problem,  that  the  work  of  most  of  the  teachers 
is  bv  no  means  satisfactory,  that  it  consists  nsnally  in  a more 
or  less  pi-ofitable  discourse  to  the  pupils  instead  of  actual  teach- 
ing or  ti'aining.  Teacher  training  is  one  great  ne(*d.  It  is  a 
curious  fact  that  the  number  of  baj)tized  children  is  less  than 
oni‘-seventli  of  tin*  total  number  of  communicants. 

•>.  Tlie  cliurches  in  Korea  and  the  ('hurcli  of  Chrmt  in  .Japan 
are  notable  in  their  r(‘cognition  of  the  duty  of  self-support.  The 
total  contributions  of  tin*  Church  of  ('blast  last  y(‘ar  were.  Yen 
112,012  trom  24.14.“)  nimiibers.  The  total  contributions  of  the 
Presbyterian  Church  in  Korea  were.  Yen  203,()f!C  from  00,047 
inemliei's.  1 he.s<*  Korea  figures  include  .school  expenditures 

363 


which,  T i>elieve,  is  not  the  case  with  the  Church  of  Christ. 
Taking  the  figures  as  they  stand,  however,  this  would  mean  an 
average  gift  of  Yen  4.G.3  in  the  Church  of  Christ  in  Japan  and  of 
Yen  3.39  in  the  Church  in  Korea.  Each  church  has  its  own  mis- 
sionary hoard,  the  Board  of  Foreign  Mis.sions  in  Korea  report- 
ing in  1914  receipts  of  Yen  3,44R  and  the  Board  of  ^Missions  in 
.Tapan.  Yen  11,00,5.  The  Board  in  .Tapan.  however,  includes 
home  missions  which  in  Korea  are  cared  for  hy  the  different  pres- 
hvteries.  Tn  neither  field  are  the  church  leaders  satisfied.  One 
of  our  missionaries  in  Korea  writes.  ‘‘For  a concrete  subiect,  let 
us  take  the  Taiku  field,  which  so  far  as  the  writer  knows  is  the 
bes-t  criver  in  South  Korea.  Supposing  the  10.000  odd  adherents  in 
this  field  could  be  led  to  give  systematically  for  300  days  in  the 
year,  thus  excepting  ,52  Sundays  and  13  holidays,  the  small  sum 
of  1-10  of  the  price  of  a verA’  poor  Korean  meal  each  time 
they  ate,  what  would  be  the  result?  The  cost  of  an  ordinarA' 
meal  in  this  city  is  Id  and  12  sen  and  in  some  of  the  country 
districts  of  this  territorA’  /t  is  as  much  but  to  be  sure  that  we  do 
not  go  above  the  cost  to  the  ordinarA’  member,  let  us  take  the 
lower  amount  and  cut  it  in  half:  then  remember  we  may  also 
double  the  result  Avithout  increasing  the  small  gift  verv  much. 
Five  sen  a meal  is  2,5  cash,  and  one-tenth  is  the  smallest  .Japanese 
coin  in  circulation  in  Korea.  T>et  each  one  of  these  10.000  lay 
by  each  meal  e\'en  this  small  amount  and  at  the  end  of  the 
year,  leaving  out  0.5  days,  we  would  have  45.000  ven  or  more 
than  33,000  yen  aboA’e  what  was  given  according  to  last  year’s 
printed  report.  Double  it.  and  you  would  have  an  amount 
more  than  seven  and  a half  times  what  this  district  gave  to  all 
objects  contributed  to  by  the  church.  Now  when  you  take  into 
consideration  that  outside  the  food  price  there  is  clothing,  hou.se 
fumishing,  doctor’s  bills,  taxes,  etc.,  these  people  are  not  giv- 
ing more  than  1-100  of  their  income,  even  counting  the  vast 
maioritv  of  them  to  be  the  A-erA'  poorest.” 

This  is  an  exacting  standard.  Perhaps  it  would  be  better  if 
there  were  more  such  rigor  of  ideal  throughout  the  mission  field. 
On  tlie  whole  the  TCorean  church  is  doing  well.  As  the  secre- 
tary of  the  Board  of  Foreign  Missions  of  the  church  pointed 
out  at  a luncheon  at  Pyeng  Yang,  many  of  the  people  were  very 
ignorant,  many  of  them  were  very  unstable  and  needed  to  be 
liatiently  followed  year  after  year  before  they  were  established 
in  faith  and  character,  and  throughout  the  church  the  people 
were  generally  poor.  The  missionaries  do  not  relax  their  insist- 
ence however  and  they  are  wise,  for  one  hears  in  the  Korean 
church  as  in  all  the  churches  in  Asia,  except  in  Japan,  fre- 
quent emphasis  on  the  idea  that  the  western  chiirches  and  the 
foreign  missionaries  are  the  father.s  and  mothers  and  teachers 
and  the  (Miristians  Avho  are  native  to  the  land  only  their  chil- 
dren and  pupils.  This  idea  found  expression  even  at  this  lunch- 
eon of  the  stronge.st  and  most  virile  leaders  of  the  Korean 
church. 


364 


6.  The  Korean  chnreli  has  been  trainer!  exclnsively  in  one 
theoloo-ical  view.  Not  only  lias  it  been  protectert  from  the  mod- 
ern critical  problems  and  from  what  would  be  called  at  home 
“liberal”  theological  opinions  but  every  r*ll'ort  has  been  made 
to  maintain  a particular  type  and  emphasis  of  conservative 
theological  view.  Even  one  who  might  synpiathize  with  this 
view  and  especially  with  its  great  central  convictions  could 
not,  T think,  but  be  fearful  of  the  day  wlien  the  tides  of  thought 
with  which  we  have  to  deal  in  the  West  break  in  upon  the 
Korean  Christians.  Will  they  have  been  prepared  for  that 
day?  The  Church  of  Christ  in  Japan  has  met  this  day  and 
dealt  with  it  and  on  the  whole  with  wonderful  loyalty  and  fidel- 
ity to  the  evangelical  foundations. 

II.  The  Union  Christian  College  in  Seoul. 

After  a full  and  earnest  di.scussion  of  the  college  question 
first  by  the  Executive  Committee  and  then  by  the  mission  and 
after  considering  various  proposals  laid  before  it,  the  mi.ssion 
adopted  the  report  of  the  Executive  Committee,  amended  by  the 
committee  of  its  own  accord  and  judgment,  in  view  of  the  dis- 
cussion, as  follows: 

“The  Committee  desires  to  call  the  attention  of  the  Mission 
to  the  ])resent  status  of  the  college  (piestion. 

“According  to  Board  Letter  No.  24t)  the  continuance  or  non- 
continuance  of  the  Pyeng  Yang  College,  under  certain  limita- 
tiou.s,  was  left  to  the  decision  of  the  Mission.  That  decision 
was  rendered.  (See  Ad  Interim  Actions  No.  7b.)  The  Board 
also  decided  that  it  would  co-operate  with  other  Mi.ssion  Boards 
in  starting  a union  college  in  Seoul.  The  organization  of  this 
college  was  to  be  etfected  in  one  of  two  ways.  First,  if  the  decis- 
ion of  the  Board  commended  itself  to  the  judgment  of  the  Mis- 
sion as  a wise  decision  under  the  circumstances  the  Mission  was 
to  procml  at  once,  through  the  Executive  Committee  to  the 
election  of  our  proi>ortionate  representation  on  the  Field  Board 
of  Managei>;,  such  repre.senatives  to  be  men  in  sympathy  with 
the  previously  adoi)t(sl  policies  of  the  Seoul  Institution;  and 
to  this  Field  Board  of  Managers  was  given  the  authority  to 
proc(M*d  with  the  college  organization.  On  the  other  hand,  if 
the  Mission,  following  its  best  judgment,  did  not  feel  ]>repai‘ed 
to  do  this  the  Board  did  not  insist  upon  the  Mi.ssion  acting 
contrary  to  its  judgment  and  presented  an  alternative  method 
for  the  organization  of  the  College,  which  was,  that  such  indi- 
viduals in  the  Mission  as  desired  to  do  so  were  authorized  to 
reju'esent  the  Board  in  co-operating  with  the  rej)resentatives  of 
other  Mi.s.sions  in  starting  the  College. 

“The  effect  of  the  Mission’s  failure  to  adopt  either  the  recom- 
mendation of  the  Executive  Committee  or  the  Uej)ort  of  ^Minority 
of  the  Committee  (See  Ad  Interim  Actions  No.  Sli)  was  that 
up  to  this  time  the  ^li.ssioii  has  made  no  decision  as  to  whether 
or  not  it  will  participate  in  the  Seoul  College. 

365 


“Tlie  Mission  liav'iiifj  failed  lo  decide  iinmediately  as  to 
wlietlier  or  not  it  would  |)articij)ale  in  the  Collej^e,  certain  indi- 
viduals in  IIk-  Mission  r(‘eliii}>-  tlial  they  were  fre<*  to  j)roc(^:sl, 
rei)res(*nt<Ml  tlie  Hoard  and  in  co-ojun-al i(*n  with  the  rej)resenta- 
lives  of  oIIkm'  Missions  started  the  (V)lle<fe,  and  it  is  now  in 
operation. 

“The  ('onmiitte(‘  feels  that  it  is  dm*  to  all  j)arties  concernc^l 
that  the  Mis.sion  at  this  time  make  a decision  as  to  whether  or 
not  it  will  i>articipate  in  the  new  institution.  As  to  what,  in 
the  mind  of  the  (’ommittee  hinjjes  npon  this  decision  we  refer 
the  Mission  to  the  I’reamhle  to  Ad  lnt(*rim  Action  No.  S2  of 
the  Ke]»ort  of  the  Committee. 

“We  recommend  that — 

“In  ref^ard  to  the  (piestion  j»resented  to  the  mission  in  Board 
letter  241)  that  after  long  ])rayer  and  careful  consideration  of 
the  Board’s  re(iuest  and  only  after  repeated  atteni])ts  to  find 
.some  other  solution  of  the  jirohlem ; we  reply  to  the  Board  that 
much  to  our  regret  we  cannot  sc*e  our  way  clear  to  participate 
in  the  Seoul  College  and  we  ask  the  Board  to  make  arrange- 
ments to  ojierate  the  College  indejiendent  of  the  Mission.” 

It  was  evident  to  almost  every  one  that  the  whole  subject  had 
become  entangled  and  jierjilexed  almost  beyond  the  hojie  of  s<du- 
tion.  The  mass  of  corresimii deuce,  the  chronological  cri.ss-cross- 
ing,  various  secondary  elements  only  half  realized  or  not  i-ealize<l 
at  all  either  at  home  or  on  the  field,  the  conscientious  differences 
of  ojiinion,  the  confusion  due  to  the  incursion  into  the  problem 
of  influences  from  without,  and  many  other  things,  made  a 
tangle  from  which  there  was  no  escape  by  argument.  The  mis- 
sion honestly  and  earnestly  sought  to  do  what  it  believed  was 
wisest  and  best  and  right  and  now  laying  aside  any  diversities 
of  judgment  and  leaving  the  i)a.st  behind,  the  true  coui-se  for 
all  is  to  go  forward  on  the  ])lau  now  accepted  by  the  luLssion.  It 
will  not  be  an  eas}’  j)lan,  as  actions  of  the  mission  may  affect 
the  college  and  actions  of  the  college  affect  the  mi.ssion  in  ways 
that  ma}'  not  have  been  foreseen  and  that  will  be  at  variance 
with  the  principle  of  .separated  re.sponsibility  involved  in  the 
action  of  the  mission.  The  conscientiousness  and  good  faith  of 
the  Executive  Committee  of  the  mission  and  of  the  Board  of 
Managers  of  the  college  will  have  to  be  relied  upon  to  guide  in 
the  wise  settlement  of  each  difficult  question  as  it  may  arise. 

Quite  apart  from  the  question  of  relations  between  the  col- 
lege and  the  mission  there  are  various  important  matters  still 
unsettled  with  regard  to  the  college  itself,  for  examijle,  its 
charter,  its  curriculum,  the  nature  and  means  of  its  religious 
influence,  its  ju-operty,  its  faculty,  etc.,  which  call  for  the  most 
cai*eful  consideration  both  on  the  field  and  at  home. 

III.  Reyiilaiious  for  Religious  Propagation. 

At  the  meeting  of  the  mission  Dr.  Moffett  made  a careful  and 
judicious  statement  with  regard  to  the  regulations  and  reported 

366 


the  action  of  the  Federal  Conncil  of  the  missions  in  Korea  which 
was  ratified  by  the  Korea  Mission  as  follows:  “Kesolved  that 

the  ]k[einbers  of  this  Federal  ronncil  of  the  I’rotestant  Evan- 
|j:elical  Missions  in  Chosen  record  onr  thaukfnlness  to  God  for 
the  freedom  of  conscience  and  the  religions  liberty  we  enjoy 
under  the  Imperial  Government  of  Japan,  and  that  as  residents 
of  the  Empire  of  Japan  and  as  Christian  Missionaries  we  recog- 
nize the  constituted  civil  authorities  as  ordained  by  God  and 
to  be  (Inly  honored  and  obeyed  in  accordance  with  the  Word  of 
God.  Further,  whereas  the  recently  issued  Ordinance  No.  SJ, 
•providing  regulations  for  religions  proi)agation  in  Chosen’ 
seemed  to  many  of  our  missionaries  to  infringe  upon  the  spir- 
itual liberty  of  the  Church  of  Christ  and  especially  Articles  IV 
and  ^’l,  being  an  addition  to  and  going  beyond  the  rules  and 
regulations  i.ssued  by  the  Imperial  Government  for  the  churches 
in  Japan  j)roper,  aicakened  the  Christian  churches  to  appoint 
their  own  officers  and  decide  upon  their  (pialifications,  there- 
fore, resolved  that  we  record  our  i)leasure  that  our  apprehen- 
sions have  been  allayed  through  an  interview  granted  to  mem- 
hers  of  this  Council  by  ^Ir.  I’sami,  Director  of  Home  Affairs 
in  the  Government-General,  by  his  declaration  that  it  is  not 
the  intention  or  aim  of  this  ordinance  to  infringe  npon  the 
i-iglits  and  ju-ivileges  hitherto  enjoyed  by  the  Christian  churches 
in  ('hosen,  either  in  their  freedom  of  belief,  or  in  the  appoint- 
ment of  their  officers  or  in  their  work  of  evangelization. 

“Therefore  further  re.solved  that  we  instruct  the  Legal  Com- 
mittee of  this  Council, 

“1st.  to  print  for  the  information  of  the  missionaries  repre- 
sented in  this  Council  a rei»ort  of  the  above  mentioned  inter- 
view. 

“2nd,  to  .secure  for  the  constituent  missions  proper  forms  of 
report  tliat  the  making  ont  of  the  re<piired  reports  may  be 
facilitated.” 

Dr.  .Moffett  called  attention  to  the  four  articles  in  the  regula- 
tions whicli  had  cliielly  aroused  concern: 

Article  I providing  that  “in  ca.se  the  Governor-General  of 
Chosen  considers  the  power  of  snj»erint(*ndents  of  religious 
proj)agalion  work,  their  methods  of  su]»erintending,  or  the  per- 
sonnel of  ollices  of  religious  propagation  work  not  suitable,  he 
may  order  changes  in  them.” 

Article  ff  ju-oviding  that  in  case  the  Governor  General  con- 
siders it  necessary  he  may  order  religions  (bmominations  or 
sects  other  tlian  the  Sliinto  or  Hnddhist,  to  ai»point  superintend- 
ents (>f  their  religious  propagation  work. 

.\rticle  !>  providing  that  “those  intcmding  to  establish  chnrche.s, 
lu-eaching  hon.ses,  and  similar  otlier  institutions  for  religions 
pnrpo.si's,  sliall  obtain  ]>ermi.ssion  of  Governor-General  of  Chosen 
for  so  doing  by  rejxu'ting  to  him  on  the  following  items: 

“1.  Keason  and  local  conditions  lUH-essitating  the  establish- 
ment of  th(*se. 


367 


“2.  Names  and  localities. 

“3.  Areas  of  {ground  and  build in^j.s,  tlie  names  of  their  own- 
ers and  pronnd  plans. 

“4.  Names  of  relifrion  and  denominations  r*r  s(K.-ts. 

“5.  (Qualifications  of  propagandists  to  be  appointed  and 
methods  for  selecting  them. 

“6.  Expenditure  of  establishment  and  ways  and  means  for 
meeting  it. 

“7.  Methods  of  superintendence  and  maintenance.” 

Article  10  providing  that  when  it  is  intendefl  to  introduce 
changes  in  any  of  the  items  between  2 and  7 enumerated  in 
article  9,  the  permission  of  the  Governor-General  should  be 
‘‘obtained  for  so  doing  by  submitting  to  him  rea.s^)ns  necessi- 
tating the  changes.” 

Dr.  Moffett  stated  that  in  the  interview  which  they  haxi 
with  Mr.  Usami  which,  it  must  be  understood,  was  purely  un- 
official, Mr.  Usami  had  explained  that  by  “superintendent”  the 
government  meant  nothing  but  some  individual  with  whom  the 
government  might  deal  as  the  official  'representativei  of  the 
church  or  ini.ssion,  that  there  was  no  thought  of  requiring  the 
appointment  of  any  one  who  .should  be  a superintendent  or 
bishop  of  the  work,  that  the  details  called  for  in  Article  9 were 
desired  for  taxation  purposes  in  order  to  know  what  property 
was  exempt,  that  the  government  did  not  intend  to  deal  with 
the  spiritual  qualifications  of  propagandists,  and  that  as  to 
Article  10  it  was  not  a formal,  official  permission  that  needed 
to  be  secured  but  only  the  government’s  acceptance  of  reports  by 
the  missions  as  to  what  thej'  were  doing  or  intending  to  do. 
With  these  explanations  the  anxieties  of  the  mission  were 
allayed. 

Several  other  considerations  also  made  the  mind  of  the  mis- 
sion more  restful.  (1)  It  was  recalled  that  in  many  coun- 
tries it  has  been  found  necessarj'  or  desirable  to  have  some  one 
representative  of  the  mission  with  whom  the  government  might 
deal.  For  years  the  missions  in  the  Turki.sh  Empire  have  had 
such  representatives.  We  have  always  had  to  have  some  one 
in  Ummia  in  this  capacity  and  in  .several  missions  in  eastern 
Asia  it  has  been  found  very  desirable  from  the  mission’s  point 
of  view  to  have  some  one  represent  it  with  the  government  who 
had  special  tact  and  was  found  to  be  acceptable  to  the  officials. 
It  is  easy  to  see  that  the  government  in  Chosen  would  find  it  a 
great  advantage  and  convenience  to  have  some  one  official  rep- 
resentative to  deal  with  in  the  case  of  each  mission  body.  (2) 
It  was  stated  in  the  mission,  and  later  confirmed  by  one  of  the 
officials  in  Seoul  that  these  regulations  had  been  in  effect  in 
Korea  for  many  years  in  the  case  of  Shintoism  and  Buddhism 
and  were  now  simply  generalized  so  as  to  cover  the  whole  field 
of  the  relation  of  the  government  to  religious  propagation.  (3) 
Dr.  Reischauer  and  Dr.  Rowland  of  Japan,  representing  the 
Presbyterian  and  Congregational  missionarie.s,  who  were  present 

368 


at  the  mission  meeting  called  the  attention  of  the  mission  to 
the  fact  that  regulations  practically  the  same  as  those  proposed 
for  Korea  had  been  in  effect  in  Japan  since  18!)!)  and  had  not 
embarrassed  the  missions  in  the  slightest  degree.  i)r.  1‘ieters  of 
Japan  had  -written  a careful  letter,  iu  reply  to  inquiries  address- 
ed to  him  with  regard  to  the  effect  of  the  regulations  in  Japan, 
in  which  he  said,  “They  have  not  troubled  or  hampered  us  in 
the  least  and  are  not  difficult  to  comply  with.  At  first  we  sup- 
posed that  we  had  to  make  a new  application  every  time  we 
wished  to  open  a special  meeting  anywhere  but  we  were  soon 
told  that  this  was  not  necessary  and  now  we  scarcely  ever  think 
of  the  regulations  except  when  a missionary  moves  into  a new 
place  and  when  we  wish  formally  and  publicly  to  dedicate  a 
new  building  whether  our  own  or  rented,  to  Christian  work.” 
Dr.  Pieters  explained  that  the  issuance  of  such  regulations  was 
entirely  in  accord  with  the  Japanese  system  of  administration 
and  that  there  was  really  considerable  need  of  such  regulations 
“as  the  various  Shinto  and  Buddhist  sects  can  by  no  means 
be  trusted  to  behave  themselves  without  some  regulation  and 
supervision  on  the  part  of  the  officials.” 

It  would  seem  to  be  clear  that  these  regulations  have  noth- 
ing to  do  with  the  right  of  religious  liberty.  That  right,  as 
we  understand  it,  is  first  a right  of  freedom  of  belief  and  second 
a right  to  propagate  belief.  But  it  has  always  been  recognized 
in  evei-j'  land  that  this  second  right  is  subject  to  the  proper 
control  of  the  state.  It  is  clear  from  the  terms  of  the  regula- 
tions that  they  affect  all  religious  propagation  alike  and  are 
not  intended  to  interfere  in  any  way  with  proper  Christian 
evangelization.  The  Japanese  officials  have  been  hearty  and 
outspoken  in  their  statements  that  they  welcome  the  fullest  and 
freest  activity  of  the  missions  in  their  direct  work  of  religious 
jtropagation. 

IV.  Rcgiilatiom  Regarding  Private  Schools. 

It  is  not  necessan-  or  desirable  to  attempt  here  a history  of 
the  development  of  our  educational  work  in  Korea  and  of  the 
beginnings  and  development  of  the  national  system  of  education 
I)rojected  with  great  efficiency  and  foresight  by  the  Goveniment- 
Genernl  of  Cho.sen,  or  of  the  processes  which  have  been  going 
on,  adjusting  the  educational  work  of  the  mi.ssions  to  the  rapidly 
growing  e<lucational  system  of  the  government.  The  three 
pamphlets  published  by  the  government  entitled  “The  Chosen 
Educational  Ordinance  and  Various  Attendant  Kegulations,” 
“Manual  of  Education  of  Koreans,”  and  “Instruction,  Regula- 
tions and  Remarks  concerning  Private  Schools,”  set  forth  clearly 
the  i)olicy  and  aims  of  the  government  and  the  letters  and  stat^ 
ments  j)repared  by  J)r.  Brown  and  Dr.  Adams  discu.ss  with 
great  care  some  of  the  que.stions  which  have  been  raised.  These 
])aniphlets  and  statements  are  before  the  Board.  It  Avill  suffice 
here,  accordingly,  to  trj-  to  state  what  .seems  to  me  to  be  the 

369 


real  issue  tliat  is  involved  and  to  reporl  what  has  Ix^en  sug- 
<>esled  in  the  way  of  a woi'kin»  solution  of  the  jirewnit  jjntbleiii. 

1 do  not  believe  that  the  central  issue  is  the  issue  of  religions 
liberty  oi-  of  the  theoretical  or  ]»ractical  relations  of  wlncation 
and  religion.  The  central  issue  is  the  i.ssne  of  {issiinilation,  the 
coinj)lete  amalgamation  of  Korea  and  the  Koreans  with  the 
larger  .fapane.se  nation  and  nationality  and  the  subordination 
and  adjustment  to  this  aim  of  the  influences  that  are  moulding 
the  Korean  j)eople.  The  ju-oblems  which  are  pre.senfed  to  us 
as  a mi.ssion  are  tho.se  which  grow  inevitably  out  of  the  pres- 
ence and  the  influence,  conscious  and  uiicousciou.s,  of  a mission 
from  one  nation  working  in  a field  where  another  nation  is 
trying  to  assimilate  the  local  pojiulation.  We  met  this  .same 
problem  both  in  Siam  and  in  the  lMiilip])ine  Islands.  (Ij  Our 
North  Siam  Mission  is  woi-king  in  a territory  and  among  a jjeople 
which  the  government  of  Siam  is  seeking  to  ab.sorb  and  as'simi- 
late.  When  our  mission  was  established  among  the  Lao  i>eople 
all  that  northern  .section  of  Siam  was  practically  independent. 
It  sj)oke  its  own  language.  It  had  its  own  governments.  It  was 
separated  from  Siamest^  administration  by  a wall  of  mountains 
and  thick  jungles.  It  acknowledged  a tributary  relation.ship 
to  Ifangkok  and  once  a year  with  great  state  sent  a tribute- 
bearing embassy.  With  this  exception  it  was  practically  an 
independent  country.  Our  missionaries  went  there  with  an 
extra-territorial  status  which  gave  them  a sort  of  comsular  influ- 
ence and  .social  standing.  They  were  able  to  acquire  from  the 
native  chiefs  whatever  land  they  desired.  They  established  the 
tirst  schools,  in  which  they  naturally  used  the  Lao  language. 
They  set  iq)  a press  and  issued  the  first  printed  Lao  books. 
Some  of  them  came  naturally  to  think  of  the  Lao  field  as  the 
center  of  a vast  work  from  which  Lao  literature  and  Lao  preach- 
ers would  be  sent  out  far  and  wide  over  a great  area  of  coun- 
try. In  time,  however,  by  an  inevitable  and  tactful  movement, 
the  administration  of  Siam  has  been  extended  over  all  this 
section.  The  railroad  has  destroyed  the  old  isolation.  Siame.se 
administrators  and  courts  and  armies  and  police  now  cover 
the  whole  region.  With  these,  and  with  the  railroads  and  with 
government  schools,  the  Siamese  language  is  spreading  rapidly. 
Already  we  are  teaching  it  in  our  schools  and  in  some  of  them 
are  doing  all  our  work  in  Siame.se.  Our  missionaries  who  had 
written  Lao  text  books  are  now  translating  them  into  what 
is  to  be  the  dominant  language.  Befoi*e  his  death  Dr.  MacGil- 
vary  foresaw  the  new  day  and  realized  what  it  was  to  mean 
and  Mrs.  MacGilvary  told  us  that  he  lamented  that  he 
had  not  foreseen  earlier  and  helped  to  shape  the  policies 
of  the  mission  so  as  to  welcome  and  promote  and  not  to  delay 
the  assimilating  tendency  which  was  as  powerful  as  time.  He 
regretted  that  the  mission  had  ever  printed  Lao  books  at  all. 
Perhaps  in  this,  however,  what  actually  happened  was  better 
than  any  later  laments;  for  the  Lao  printetl  literature  has  been 

370 


ail  iniineasnrable  blessing  ami  its  work  is  not  yet  done.  But 
the  issue  wliieli  was  in  Dr.  Maerxilvarv’s  mind  was  a real  issue, 
namely,  as  to  whether  a mi.ssion  in  such  a held  shall  jtromble 
or  delay  by  its  indnenees  an  amalgamating  racial  movement, 
whether  that  movement  is  jiroceeding  nnconscionsly  or  is  made 
a direct  jiolicy  of  the  government  within  whose  territory  the 
mission  is  at  work.  (2|  In  the  Philippine  Islands  we  see  the 
same  iiroblem  in  a yet  more  vivid  form,  only  ^liere  the  govern- 
ment is  onr  own  and  the  missionaries  are  not  ourselves  bnt 
Roman  (,'atholics.  The  American  government  has  been  pursuing 
in  the  Philiiniine  Islands  a jiolicy  of  assimilation.  Quite  apart 
from  the  (piestion  of  the  ultimate  i>olitical  destiny  of  the  Islands 
the  government  and  every  governmental  intliience  have  wrought 
to  unify  the  Filipino  people,  to  permeate  their  life  Avith  the 
American  sjiirit  and  the  princijiles  of  American  political  insti- 
tutions. to  give  them  one  language  and  that  language  Engli.sh. 
The  Roman  Fatholic  missionaries  found  it  very  difficult  to  adjust 
themselves  to  such  a jtolicy.  In  the  interest  of  the  peace  and 
harmony  of  the  Islands  and  as  necessary  to  the  carrying  out  of 
its  j)nrj»ose,  the  government  actually  Avent  so  far  as  to  insist 
upon  the  AvithdraAval  from  the  Islands  of  a large  body  of  Roman 
Fatholic  missionaries  Avhose  ])re.sence  militated  against  the  as- 
similating ]>roce.s.s.  If  the  Roman  (’atholic  chniadi  had  been 
wise  it  would  liaA’e  thrown  itself  heartily  into  the  govei-nment’s 
j»rogram  and  jn-omoted  its  ]»olicy  both  as  to  the  language  and 
as  to  the  ideals  which  the  government  Avas  seeking  to  spread 
among  the  peoj)le.  This  the  church  has  failed  to  do.  Indeed  it 
is  a body  which  has  no  faculty  foi-  adjustment  such  as  this. 
Where  the  Roman  ('atholic  church  has  failed  in  the  Philip]>ines, 
onr  mission  is  succeeding  in  northern  Siam  and  although  it  Avill 
be  hard  foi-  it  to  make  some  of  the  readjustments  that  Avill  be 
nece.ssary,  it  will  make  them  and  its  influence  will  be  one  of  the 
wholesome  and  constiaict ive  infinences  that  Avill  make  northern 
Siam.  Its  ]»i-oblem  will  be  no  (*asy  one,  howevei*,  and  the  ])resent 
tendenci(*s  in  Siam  in  tin*  inter(*st  of  Buddhism  as  the  national 
religion  may  Tiiake  the  task  veiy  mnch  more  dillicnlt  than  it 
has  b(H*n,  moi-e  difficult  by  far  than  the  task  of  tin*  missionarit's 
in  Korea  is. 

This  view  of  tin*  real  i.ssne  in  Kor(*a  simj)lilies  the  problem 
very  greatly  in  one  way  while  it  com]dicates  it  in  another.  It 
coin])licat(*s  it  because  not  unnaturally  the  Koi-(*an  ])eople  have 
be<*n  slow  to  accej»t  tin*  idea  of  the  absorption  of  their  racial 
identity  into  tin*  (mlarg(*d  .la]iam*se  nationality.  The  .Japanese 
recognize  ami  i-e.sj)ect  this  f(‘eling  on  the  ])art  of  the  Kor(*ans. 
In  oii(‘  of  tin*  girhs'  schools  in  Tokyo  tin*  teachers  told  me  that 
•lapan(*.se  girls  Ave])t  when  tin*  t(-achei-s  (*.\plained  to  them  the 
histoi-y  of  Korea  and  tohl  them  Avhy  they  mnsf  show  special 
love  and  consideration  foi-  the  Korean  girls  who  had  come  to 
study  among  them.  Bnt  on  the  other  hand  the  .Iaj)aiu*se  argue 

371 


Iliat  it  was  only  a question  as  to  whelher  the  Koreans,  left  to 
ihenisolves  or  to  the  Chinese  or  Knssians,  should  he  wasted  by 
(heir  own  {government  and  lranij)led  over  by  the  onward  move- 
ment of  the  world’s  life,  or  be  gather<Ml  up  into  the  larger  na- 
tional personality  in  which  the  dapanse  oiler  them  their  own 
])lace  and  ]»roi)ose,  to  mingle  with  them  their  own  blofnl.  Already 
there  is  an  inci-easing  number  of  Koreans  who  believe  that  this 
is  the  larger  destiny  for  their  nation  and  who  are  throwing  them- 
selves in  w'ith  the  assimilative  process.  Thousands  of  Japanese 
are  moving  into  the  peninsula  and  many  intennarry  with  the  Ko- 
reans. The  Japanese  language  is  sjjreading  rapidly  throughout 
(he  country.  Whatever  regrets  or  longings  any  may  eheri.sh 
among  the  Korean  people  or  among  their  friends  in  other  coun- 
tries, does  it  not  seem  that  the  policy  of  a.ssimilation  proposed 
by  Jai)an  is  not  only  inevitable  but  al.so  the  opening  of  a w’ide 
door  for  Korea?  More  English  and  German  and  Irish  people 
have  come  to  America  than  there  are  Koreans  in  Korea.  These 
Euroi»ean  races  have  melted  themselves  into  our  American  na- 
tionality to  their  enriching  and  ours.  Great  racial  a.ssimilations 
have  taken  place  again  and  again  in  histon,'.  If  it  is  clear  that 
the  amalgamation  of  the  Koreans  and  the  Japanese  is  in  the 
great  juogram  of  history’  will  it  not  be  far  better  for  all  forces 
to  co-oj)erate  and  might  not  the  Christian  church  in  Korea  do 
for  Christianity  both  in  Chosen  and  in  Japan  and  in  the  greater 
Jaj)an  a unique  sei’vice  by  training  and  leadership  in  this  pro- 
cess of  assimilation.  Until,  however,  the  Korean  people  have 
been  able  to  accept  more  fully  this  ideal  of  a.ssimilation  it  is 
clear  that  those  w’ho  wmuld  lead  them  cannot  .separate  them- 
.selves  too  far  from  them  but  must  be  wise  and  patient.  It  is 
this  fact  which  makes  the  position  of  the  missionaries  difficult. 
If  they  go  too  fast  in  pressing  thoughts  like  these  upon  the  Ko- 
reans they  may  lose  all  their  influence  and  be  disqualified  for 
rendering  the  very  service  which  a more  cautious  course  may 
enable  them  to  render  to  a singular  degree. 

On  the  other  hand  if  this  view  is  accepted  and  the  government 
comes  to  realize  that  the  missions  and  the  churches  in  the  West 
thoroughly  appreciate  its  aims  then,  I think,  there  is  ground  to 
believe  that  such  problems  as  have  arisen  with  regard  to  the 
schools  will  be  capable  of  a much  easier  .solution  than  will  be 
l)Ossible-  if  the  missions  and  their  influence  are  conceived  as 
standing  in  the  way  of  the  a.ssimilative  process. 

Of  course  it  may  be  asked  whether  it  is  the  duty  of  a mission 
to  entertain  such  considerations  as  these  at  all.  whether  it  has 
any  business  but  the  simple  business  of  preaching  the  gospel  to 
the  people,  whether  it  is  any  part  of  its  function  either  to  aid  or 
hinder  i>olicies  of  nationalization  which  are  operating  around  it. 
If  any  one  should  take  this  view'  that  a mission  should  confine  it- 
self to  file  simple  task  of  preaching  the  gospel  and  have  nothing 
to  do  with  schools  or  institutions,  he  would  find  doubtless  some 

372 


among  the  Japanese  officials  who  would  sympathize  with  him. 
Such  a view  would  solve  the  problem  of  the  mission  schools  by 
giving  them  up  altogether.  But  this  the  missionaries  in  Korea 
are  unwilling  to  do.  And  they  believe  that  it  is  not  necessary, 
but  that  they  can  conduct  the  schools  in  such  a way  as  to  oc- 
casion the  govemment  no  concern,  but  rather  to  help  it  in  all 
its  ])urposes  for  the  progress  and  well-being  of  the  people.  But 
even  if  the  missionaries  do  confine  themselves  simply  to  preach- 
ing. it  is  to  men  that  they  have  to  preacli  and  to  men  not  as  in- 
dividuals but  as  members  of  a society.  Twenty-five  years  ago 
it  was  possible  to  preach  the  gospel  in  Korea  just  to  individuals. 
Tlie  nation  was  a mass  of  unsocialized  units.  But  now  it  is  a 
society  administered  by  officials  representing  one  of  the  most 
tightly-woven  political  and  social  organizations  we  know.  It  is 
impossible  for  missionaries  anywhere  in  the  world  to  prevent 
their  influence  from  affecting  society.  The  vein’  existence  of  our 
mission  compounds  and  institutions,  the  vineyards  and  apple 
orchards  of  the  missionaries,  so  highly  appreciated  and  com- 
mended by  the  Japanese,  the  fact  that  we  are  in  Korea  at  all 
and  that  we  come  from  America,  all  these  things  are  influences 
that  reach  out  beyond  our  wills.  The  mere  existence  of  the 
riiristian  church,  the  largest  collective  consciousness  in  Korea, 
is  an  unconscious  influence  who.se  power  cannot  be  measured. 
All  these  things  have  to  be  kept  in  mind  when  we  try  to  think 
of  the  po.ssibilitv  of  a colorless  attitude.  The  wise  and  true 
and  safe  course  it  seems  to  me  is  to  recognize  the  actual  facts 
of  life,  to  accept  the  re.spon.sibilities  involved  in  our  presence  in 
Korea  as  Korea  is  today  and  not  reluctantly  or  pas.sively,  but 
positively  and  wisely  to  co-operate  as  we  have  been  doing  in  the 
working  out  of  the  great  future  of  Chosen  as  a part  of  Great 
Japan. 

The  possible,  perhaps  it  would  be  better  to  say,  the  imagin- 
able, solutions  of  the  pmblem  presented  by  the  educational  regu- 
lations forbidding  in  all  new  schools,  and  in  all  old  schools 
after  ten  years,  any  religions  worship  or  instniction  in  the  cur- 
riculum of  the  school,  would  seem  to  be  four.  (1)  Tf  the  govern- 
ment realized  lliat  we  took  the  view  of  its  policy  of  assimila- 
tion which  has  been  set  forth  and  could  perceive  that  just  as  in 
Japan  and  in  evein'  other  land  the  Christian  Church  is 
tlie  strongest  and  best  force  at  work  for  all  good  and  righteous 
end.s.  it  might  be  willing  radically  to  amend  the  regulations  and 
to  give  priv’ate  .schools  even  now  more  privileges  than  are  ac- 
cordeil  in  Japan.  (2i  Or  it  might  be  that,  as  many  have  gather- 
ed from  a study  of  the  situation  and  from  remarks  of  the  offi- 
cials, if  the  mi.ssions  were  jirepared  to  turn 'over  their  primarj’ 
schools  to  the  govemment,  the  government  might  be  ready  to 
make  freer  arrangements  with  regard  to  advanced  schools.  Some 
of  the  mi.ssionary  agencies  in  Chosen  are  dispo.sed  to  take  this 
course,  others  feel  tliat  the  church  primary  schools  are  especial- 
ly important,  but  it  seem.s  to  be  generall}'  recognized  that  in  time 

373 


the  same  coiKlitions  will  jti'evail  that  prevail  in  Japan  where 
with  a compnlsory  school  law  i»i-iinary  education  has  become 
almost  entirely  a state  function  as  it  is  in  America.  tJ)  Or  we 
might  forego  the  establishment  of  any  new  school  which  wonld 
come  under  the  regulations  and  be  content  with  the  maintenance 
of  such  schools  as  we  have  and  which  can  continue  religious 
worshi])  and  teaching  in  the  curriculum  for  ten  yeais;  in  the 
ho])e  that  by  the  end  of  that  period  there  may  be.  as  there  cer- 
tainly will  be.  great  changes  in  educational  policy  both  in 
riiosen  and  in  Japan  proper.  There  are  some  new  institutions, 
however,  which  the  missions  feel  to  be  indis[>ensable  and  there 
are  some  existing  in.stitutions  which  have  not  yet  received  gov- 
ernment sanction  and  which  will  only  be  sanctionecl  under  the 
new  regulations.  (4i  Or  on  a basis  of  the  most  friendly  and 
sympathetic  conference  possible  with  the  government  we  should 
.seek  to  discover  whether  there  may  not  be  some  working  arrange- 
ment, by  which  there  may  be  religions  worship  and  teaching  for 
the  pupils  of  the  school  apart  from  the  official  government  cur- 
riculum. 

Aside  from  this  question  of  the  relation  of  the  eflucational 
regulations  to  the  teaching  of  religion  in  our  schools,  there  are 
.some  important  ])oints  in  connection  with  our  schools  which 
.should  be  referred  to.  H i The  government  regulations  have  to 
do  in  the  main  with  questions  of  educational  standard,  the 
teaching  of  the  national  language  fJapane.sel,  the  character  of 
the  education  neede^l,  with  reference  specially  to  its  usefulness 
and  practicabilifs’  in  the  social  and  industrial  conditions  pre- 
vailing in  riiosen.  Tn  these  and  other  regards  the  ideals  of  the 
government  ought  to  be  the  ideals  of  our  mi.ssion  schools  and 
the  mi.ssionaries  generally  agree  that  they  need  a great  deal  of 
strengthening  and  the  raising  up  of  more  efficient  teachers  in 
order  that  the  quality  of  the  schools  may  be  made  what  the  gov- 
ennnent  demands  and  what  the  Christian  conscience  requires. 
(2i  There  is  great  need  of  more  Japanese  Christian  teachers. 
The  schools  do  and  ought  to  teach  Japanese  and  for  this  there 
must  be  good  Japanese  teachers.  The  government  naturally  re- 
quires also  that  history  shall  be  taught  by  Japane.se  and  it  is 
very  important  that  the  Jajianese  who  teach  history  in  mis- 
sion schools  should  be  Christian  men.  The  Meiji  Gakuin  might  well 
find  a piece  of  work  here  of  the  highest  importance  that  would  be 
useful  to  it  in  many  ways  and  that  would  make  it  most  u.sefxil 
to  the  church  and  the  government  in  Chosen,  namely  in  training 
('hristian  Japanese  teachers  for  the  .schools  of  all  the  Presby- 
terian missions  in  Chosen.  It  will  require  some  additional  funds 
to  employ  Japanese  and  these  funds  should  be  added  to  the  ap- 
propriations for  the  mission.  (3)  The  explicit  declaration  of 
the  government  that  no  religious  worship  or  teaching  is  per- 
mitted in  the  schools  would  seem  to  make  it  clear  that  the  cere- 
mony of  bowing  to  the  Emperor's  picture  in  the  schools  and  on 
public  occasions  when  the  school  children  of  public  and  private 

374 


schools  are  assembled  and  that  references  to  ancestral  worship 
in  the  government  text  book  on  ethics,  are  not  to  be  construed 
in  any  religious  sense.  It  has  helped  some  of  the  missionaries 
in  Korea  also  to  learn  that  some  years  ago  “an  official  statement 
was  issued  by  the  Mini.ster  of  Education  (in  Japan)  to  the  ef- 
fect that  bowing  before  the  picture  of  the  Emperor  was  to  be 
regarded  as  an  act  expressive  of  the  highest  reverence  due  to  a 
mau.”  Furthermore  a government  order  issued  in  Seoul  on 
Oct.  10,  101.5,  has  dealt  with  this  matter  and  the  whole  qiaestion 
of  ceremonial  observances  in  the  following  liberal  terms: 

“Letter  to  the  Christian  Private  Schools  about  ceremonial  ob- 
.servances  of  Festivals  and  National  days. 

“Since  the  observance  of  festivals  and  national  days  is  deter- 
mined by  the  laws  of  the  Japane.se  Empire  it  is  already  known 
that  these  are  quite  different  from  the  ordinary"  worship  of  re- 
ligions bodies.  But  it  is  said  that  among  the  Christians  some 
confn.se  these  with  ordinarv  religious  services  and  dislike  being 
present  at  such  observances  and  ceremonies.  As  this  impres- 
•sion  is  erroneous  all  teachers  and  officers  of  the  schools  should 
be  clearly  instructed  about  this  matter,  fl)  When  these  fes- 
tivals and  National  Days  are  ob.served  in  the  schools,  the  Na- 
tional Air  should  be  suug,  and  a fitting  address  made.  (2)  Pri- 
vate Cliristian  Schools  that  had  received  permits  before  March 
.‘51  of  this  year,  can  perform  a religious  ceremony,  if  they  have 
had  the  custom  in  the  past  of  doing  so.” 

E.  Coufcrenrrst  trith  the  Officials  in  SIcouJ. 

Tlianks  to  the  kindness  of  the  officials  we  were  given  the  most 
satisfactory  n]»])orlunities  that  we  could  desire  for  conference. 
Tlie  Covernor-rieneral  had  been  good  enough  to  invite  Dr.  Sailer 
and  me.  the  only  members  of  our  party  who  were  to  be  in  Seoul 
at  Ihe  time,  to  a luncheon  on  Sei>t.  17th.  There  were  present 
at  the  Inncheon  the  Covernor-Cieneral,  Count  Terauchi,  the  Vice- 
Covernor,  Mr.  Yaniagata,  Mr.  Komatsu,  in  charge  of  the  Foreign 
Affairs  Section,  Mr.  Csami,  the  Director  of  the  Internal  Affairs 
Department,  ^fr.  Sekiya,  Director  of  the  Educational  Bureau, 
^rajor-tJeiKM-al  Sliirai.  Military  Attache,  and  a few  other  officials 
of  tlie  Ciovernment-Oeneral,  >ir.  Miller  the  American  Consul 
Ceneral,  Bishoj)  Ilariis  and  ^fi-.  Smith  of  the  Methodist  Mission 
and  Dr.  Cnderwoo<l  and  Mr.  (Jah*  of  onr  mission,  and  Dr.  Sailer 
and  myself.  Aft<u-  Ihe  lnnch(‘on  the  Covernor-General  made  a 
l)Hef  sj»eech  tlie  re]>oi-t  of  wliich  I (juote  from  the  “Seoul  Pre.ss” 
of  Sept.  fOth.  II(‘  stated  tliat  he  was  very  glad  to  have  visitors 
from  America  as  his  guests.  “He  thought  that  tlieir  pre.sent 
visit  to  tliis  country  was  esj)ecially  op])ortune,  for  the  Indu.s- 
trial  Exliil)ition  in  commemoration  of  the  fifth  year  of  the  new 
regime  was  opened  but  recently.  This  was  mutually  convenient 
for  his  guests  and  the  authorities.  The  results  of  the  work 
•lapan  has  assiduously  carried  on  in  Chosen  during  the  five  years 
past  could  l)e  .seen  by  visiting  tlie  Exhibition  and  the  eminent 

375 


liost  did  not  think  that  any  official  word  would  be  as  eloquent 
as  those  exhibits.  He  desired  his  {guests  to  inspect  them  min- 
utely and  pass  a just  verdict  on  the  work  of  the  Government-Gen- 
eral. In  so  saying  the  Count  was  far  from  meaning  that  the 
authorities  were  self-satisfied  with  the  results  of  their  work  of 
five  years.  The  fundamental  object  of  the  present  Exhibition 
was  to  give  the  people  an  opportunity  for  study  as  to  how  the 
different  branches  of  national  industry  might  be  developed  to 
best  advantage.  In  conclusion  his  Excellency  said  that  he  was 
I'eady  to  give  his  American  guests  all  facilities  in  his  power  for 
investigation  in  this  country  and  wished  them  a comfortable 
and  interesting  journey  in  Japan  itself.” 

T replied,  after  thanking  him  for  his  hospitality  and  the  op- 
])ortunity  which  it  afforded  of  saying  to  him  and  to  the  other  gen- 
tlemen present  what  was  in  our  minds  and  hearts,  by  expressing 
full  appreciation  of  what  had  been  achieved  both  in  the  exposi- 
tion and  in  the  countm\  contrasting  the  Chosen  of  today  with  the 
Korea  of  twenfs'  years  ago,  commenting  on  what  Japan  had 
done  in  commnnications,  in  industry,  and  in  government,  and 
then  went  on  to  recognize  the  aim  and  policy  of  tbe  government 
in  seeking  to  bring  about  a complete  as.similation  of  the  Koreans 
in  the  body  of  the  enlarged  nation,  compared  what  Japan  was 
doing  with  onr  own  endeavors  in  the  Philippine  Islands  and  re- 
ferred to  the  difficulty  of  carrving  through  such  a process  of 
as.similation  with  the  acquiescence  and  love  of  the  people  to  be 
assimilated,  at  the  same  time  that  the  winning  of  such  love 
is  a thing  to  be  longed  for  and  sought  after  as  the  most  efficient 
agency  of  as.similation.  I then  tried  to  explain  the  real  aims 
of  the  missionary  entei^prise  as  understood  by  Protestant  mi/^- 
sionaries,  who  .seek  not  to  denationalize  nor  to  introduce  for- 
eign organizations  but  to  build  up  within  and  to  foster  the  un- 
folding of  a people’s  own  character  and  life;  that  the  whole 
work  of  missions  re.sulted  in  the  training  of  law-abiding  citizens, 
in  developing  upright  and  useful  character  and  in  promoting 
true  progress  and  that  we  were  very  anxious  to  have  the  gov- 
ernment nnder.stand  and  appreciate  the  real  character  and  re- 
sult of  onr  work  as  we  sought  to  appreciate  the  aims  and  pui*- 
poses  of  the  government.  I closed  by  saying  that  surely  on  such 
a basis  of  understanding  and  confidence  it  would  be  pos,sible  to 
reach  a satisfactory  solution  of  problems  that  had  arisen  and 
that  might  arise,  that  we  did  not  believe  that  these  problems 
were  intended  to  involve  the  principle  of  religious  liberty  but 
had  arisen  out  of  regulations  framed  purely  with  reference  to 
the  government’s  policy  of  assimilation  and  that  if  the  govern- 
ment felt  assured  of  the  mission’s  appreciation  and  regard  for 
this  policy  it  would  surely  be  able  to  find  ways  of  meeting  the 
difficulties  of  the  missions  and  allowing  them  all  proper  lib- 
erty in  their  work.  I added  that  we  had  now  given  him  assur- 
ance of  our  Tinderstandiug  and  confidence  with  respect  to  the 
government  and  that  we  longed  for  similar  understanding  and 

376 


conifidence  on  the  part  of  the  government  with  respect  to  the 
missionary  work.  I said  all  this  with  the  warm  sympathy  which 
r sincerely  felt  and  the  Governoi*-General  and  the  other  gentle- 
men who  were  there  wei‘e  exceedingly  kind  and  responsive. 

Immediately  after  the  luncheon  Mr.  Miller  and  I went  for  a 
conference  with  Mr.  Komatsu.  He  expressed  appreciation  of 
what  had  been  said  at  the  luncheon  in  acknowledgment  of  the 
work  that  the  government  had  done  and  in  recognition  of  its 
policy  of  assimilation  and  he  explained  the  policy  more  fully. 
He  said  that  the  state  must  provide  and  control  education  as 
a state  function,  that  in  time  the  government  would  be  ready 
to  allow  such  educational  arrangements  as  existed  in  Japan  or 
even  better  ones  but  that  the  conditions  which  prevailed  in  Japan 
must  be  achieved  first  and  the  process  of  nationalization  be  as- 
sured. The  following  topics  were  then  touched  upon.  I report 
the  substance  of  what  was  said  from  my  notebook,  but,  of  course, 
all  this  was  just  conversation  and  not  official  expression  and  I 
report  it  merely  as  such.  (1)  Mr.  Komatsu  referred  to  primary 
schools  and  the  feeling  of  the  government  that  this  work  was 
primarily  a function  of  the  government,  and  the  impression  was 
strengthened,  which  was  several  times  suggested  at  the  mission 
meeting,  that  if  the  primaiy  school  field  were  in  the  government’s 
hands,  as  is  the  case  in  Japan,  the  problem  of  the  higher  schools 
might  be  modified  somew^hat.  (2j  As  to  the  college,  he  seemed 
to  feel  very  kindly  and  I judged  was  giving  all  the  assistance  he 
could  to  securing  the  property  but  had  difficulties  to  overcome 
which  re<j[uired  patience.  His  .solution  of  the  religious  prob- 
lem ill  coimectioii  with  the  college  seemed  to  be  that  thex*e  should 
be  a Bible  or  seminary  department  which  should  have  its  chapel 
and  religious  teaching  and  the  academic  students  could  go  there, 
(dj  This  led  on  to  the  subject  of  chapel  exercises  and  religious 
teaching  in  institutions  permitted  under  the  new  regulations. 

1 gathered  that  chapel  exercises  in  a separate  building  and  out- 
side the  official  curriculum  would  be  allowed  and  religious  in- 
struction either  after  or  before  and  apart  from  the  official  cur- 
riculum, and  it  did  not  seem  to  me  that  the  question  was  a 
closed  one  as  to  whether  a chapel  service  and  religious  instruc- 
tion might  not  be  in  the  .same  building  with  the  school,  if  option- 
al and  detached  in  some  way  by  a short  break  from  the  official 
curriculum.  1 may  have  misunderstood  but  the  conversation  cer- 
tainly left  me  with  the  hope  that  some  such  adjustment  might 
be  possible  and  that  attendance  upon  the  chapel  services  might 
properly  be  expected  of  the  students  even  though  it  could  not 
be  made  required  in  form.  (4)  Mr.  Komatsu  then  referred  to 
the  regulations  regarding  religious  propaganda  pointing  out 
that  they  would  not  restrict  evangelization,  that  they  did  not 
contemplate  any  hindrances  or  limitations,  that  they  had  been 
drafted  for,  and  for  ten  years  had  been  in  effect  with  regard 
to.  Buddhism  and  Shintoism,  that  they  were  not  aimed  at  Chris- 
tianity but  that  their  issuance  in  the  present  form  was  simply 

377 


I 


a proper  oenei-alizaioii  of  this  lej^islation.  He  adde<]  that  the 
{govern men t believed  it  was  (omj)etent  to  provide  e<lucation  but 
that  it  needed  tlie  helj)  dial  American  tdiristians  could  t^ive  in 
the  relif>ions  life  of  the  nation  and  welcomed  it,  that  the  retal- 
iations were  not  intended  to  impede  such  work  at  all  and  that 
moreover  in  tlie  tield  of  (*ducation  the  missions  would  have  a 
free  hand  in  all  their  purely  reli<fious  work,  their  Hunday-schools 
and  training  schools  for  workers  and  jireachers.  (5)  Kegarding 
the  incorjioration  of  a shadan  to  hold  mission  property  in  Korea, 
Mr.  Komatsu  said  that  they  were  sympathetic  and  ready  and 
that  it  was  only  a (piestion  of  the  right  method  of  dealing  with 
all  such  matters  and  that  in  due  time  they  would  hope  to  have 
a general  plan  that  would  be  satisfactory.  In  closing  the  con- 
ference, Mr.  Komatsu  sjtoke  again  of  the  fjrinciple  of  nationali- 
zation and  also  of  his  convictions  regarding  education  as  the 
duty  and  province  of  the  state. 

In  the  evening  we  met  Mr.  rsanii  and  Mr.  Sekiya  at  dinner 
at  Dr.  I'liderwood’s  and  had  a further  very  friendly  and  helpful 
conference  learning  their  views  and  discussing  the  jiroblems  be- 
fore the  country.  Mr.  F.sami  .said  that  in  his  view  education 
and  religion  were  the  two  great  needs  of  the  nation,  that  it  was 
the  ]>art  of  the  goveniment  to  give  one  and  our  part  to  share  in 
giving  the  other,  that  they  welcomed  the  missions  as  a religious 
force.  Mr.  Sekiya  said  that  absolute  assimilation  was  the  aim 
of  the  goveniment,  that  it  was  ju-oceeding  rapidly,  that  in  ten 
or  twenty  years  or  more  it  might  come  and  that  then  there  would 
be  the  same  freedom  in  Korea  as  in  Japan,  but  that  now  even 
the  Japane.se  in  Korea  did  not  have  tlie  same  civil  rights  as  at 
home  in  Japan.  It  was  not  acceptable,  accordingly,  to  have  con- 
ditions in  Japan  brought  forward  as  though  the  .situation  in 
Korea  were  parallel.  Mr.  U.sami  referred  to  our  mission  Edu- 
cational Senate’s  passing  upon  a government  ethics  text  book.  In 
general  I gathered  that  his  views  were  much  in  accord  with 
those  which  I have  rejiorted  in  the  conference  with  Mr.  Ko- 
matsu. I understood  him  to  .sa}’  that  all  new  schools  including 
the  college  in  Seoul  which,  operating  at  present  under  the  John 
D.  Wells  pennit,  would  of  course  obtain  its  own  charter  and 
would  be  expected  to  conform  to  the  government  educational 
regulations,  with  whatever  interpretations  these  might  be  given ; 
that  they  expected  Korea  to  be  made  absolutely  a part  of  the 
Empire  and  wanted  Koreans  and  Japane.se  to  be  completely  as- 
similated and  that  educational  processes  must  contemplate  this 
end.  I .spoke  of  the  great  importance  of  their  securing  Korean 
leadership  of  their  own  people  in  such  a movement  and  described 
the  work  of  our  government  in  the  Philippine  Islands  and  the 
agencies  and  si)irit  with  which  it  was  seeking  to  unify  and  ad- 
vance the  life  of  the  Filipino  people. 

I think  it  was  Mr.  Komatsu  who  gave  me  the  following  state- 
ment regarding  the  educational  statistics  of  Chosen  in  Febru- 
ary, 1915.  He  called  attention  to  the  rapid  growth  of  the  public 

378 


schools  and  said  that  very  soon  they  would  far  outnumber  the 
private  schools  and  practically  fill  the  educational  field,  and 
he  laugiiiu<?ly  remarked  that  perhaps  it  might  have  been  better 
if  the  government  had  not  issued  some  of  the  pi-esent  regulations 
but  had  quietly  done  as  the  American  government  has  done  in 
the  Philippines,  namely  take  possession  of  the  whole  education- 
al field  by  virtue  of  its  larger  resources  and  more  efficient  work. 
The  statement  which  he  gave  me  was  as  follows: 

EDUCATION  IN  CHOSEN 

According  to  the  latest  official  investigation  the  total  number 
of  educational  institutions  for  Japane.se  and  Koreans  in  Chosen 
was  28()  and  l.T2!(  respectively.  The  particulars  are  as  follows: 

.JAPANESE 


School 

Schools 

Teachers 

Pupils 

Annual 

Expendi- 

ture 

Primary  (Public)  

204 

881 

2S..502 

yen. 

TU0,!»40 

Middle  ( (Joverument)  

o 

47 

830 

101.122 

Girts’  Higher  (Government)  .. 

(i 

().*> 

1.0.8;] 

75..804 

Industrial  

.’>3 

341 

30.705 

Technical  (I’rivate)  

1 

14 

35 

10.410 

I'rivate  

8 

51 

022 . 

Total  

2SC, 

I.ICO 

.31,636 

028,080 

.School 

KOREAN 

Schools 

Teachers 

I’ui)ils 

Annual 

Expendi- 

ture 

Public  Common  

3S1 

1 .707 

.50,02.5 

yen. 

1.108.370 

Private  Common  •. 

20 

102 

1 .0.8.8 

Public  Higher  Common 

•> 

74 

1,.327 

107,045 

Private  Higher  Common  

o 

IS 

273 

1 5.3.3s 

(lOvernment  Girls’  Higher  Common... 

1 

23 

:!27 

41,0.54 

Private  Girts’  Higher  Common.  . 

• ) 

27 

100 

20.27!) 

Government  Special  

1 

17 

140 

20..8()0 

Public  Commercial 

•> 

15 

2.8!) 

21.22.5 

Private  Commercial 

1 

14 

1.30 

25.744 

Public  Agricultural  

SO 

1.102 

!)7.845 

Public  Elementary  Industrial  . . 

.">S 

2(H) 

1,440 

Private  Elementary  Industrial  . 

»> 

4 

0(i 

I’rivate  .Secular  

TOO 

2.085 

:)!).524 

.371, .3(1.3 

Private  Ueligious 

■473 

2,0.84 

20,201 

.302.007 

Total  

..  1,720 

7,110 

120,010 

2.1!).3.110 

As  will  he  .seen  from  the  above  list  the  annual  expenditure 
f(»i‘  the  Japanese  .scJkkJs  totals  1)28,08(1  yen  and  that  for  public 
|»riinary  schools  heads  the  list  with  700,1)4!)  yen.  The  aggregate 
number  of  j)njtils  stands  at  Jl,(iJ(J,  including  17,08)!  boys  and 
14,r>.70  girks.  Of  the  teachers,  l,l(i!)  in  number,  l,0(i9  are  appoint- 
e<l  sjtecially  while  1)7  hold  additional  jmsts.  As  for  Korean  in- 
stitutions, the  annual  exi)enditure  amounts  to  2,193,110  yen  and 
that  for  public  common  schools  heads  the  list  with  1,108,370  yen. 

379 


The  pupils  include  .110,298  boys  and  13,021  girls.  In  Japanese 
schools  tihe  difference  in  Ihe  number  of  boys  and  girls  is  2,530 
only,  but  in  Korean  schools  boys  excetMl  (he  girls  by  102,077. 
The  (eachers  engaged  in  Korean  schools  nnitd>er  7,119.  Of  thes<i 
971  are  Jai)anese  and  0,118  Koreans.  The  Japanese  teachers 
engaged  in  Koreaiii  schools  are  increasing  in  nnml)er  year  by  year 
and  ])rincipals  of  public  coinnion  schools  are  now  all  Japanese. 
-Many  Japanese,  teach ei*s  have  and  are  being  engaged  by  private 
schools,  and  e.specially  noteworthy  is  it  that  many  religious 
institutions  have  also  engaged  Japanese  teachers.  The  teachers 
in  Korean  schools  include  0,884  men  specially  appointed  and 
2.35  holding  additional  posts. 

It  is  of  conr.se  obvions  tliat  the  adjustment  of  the  questions 
which  have  ai-isen  with  regard  to  the  educational  regulations 
will  have  to  be  made  through  conferences  of  the  missionaries 
with  the  goverament  officials.  All  that  we  c-ould  do  was  simply 
to  make  what  small  contribution  we  might,  and  doubtless  it 
was  very"  little,  toward  developing  that  atmo.sphere  of  confidence 
and  good  will  without  which  so  little  can  be  done. 

\l.  There  are  many-  other  matters  on  which  report  can  be 
made  to  the  Board  verbally  such  as  the  beautiful  little  home 
and  school  for  missionaries’  children  in  Pyeng  Yang,  the  Pierson 
Mejnorial  Bible  School  who.se  comer  .stone  was  laid  while  we 
were  in  Seoul  and  for  which  with  the  kindly  assistance  of  Mr. 
Komatsu,  an  admirable  site  has  been  secur^  looking  out  over 
the  grounds  of  the  old  Mulberiy"  Palace,  the  mi.ssion’s  urgent  ap- 
j)eal  for  new  men  for  Manchuria  and  for  the  work  among  the 
growing  Korean  communities  there,  problems  of  the  hospitals 
and  medical  work  on  which  Dr.  Bovaird  will  report  .specially, 
etc.,  etc.  But  I cannot  close  this  report  on  Korea  without  bear- 
ing testimony  again  to  the  conscientiousness  and  Sincerity  which, 
dominated  the  discus.sion  of  the  very'^  diflhcult  questions  which 
were  laid  before  the  mission  meeting  and  which  will  surely  en- 
able the  majority"  of  the  mission  to  appreciate  other  view  points 
and  convictions  than  their  own.  There  should  be  hearty  recog- 
nition akso  of  the  efforts  of  the  mission  to  deal  with  the  mo.st 
trying  problems  and  difficulties  of  such  an  era  of  transition  as 
few,  if  any  missions  of  the  Board,  have  ever  been  called  to  pass 
through  and  its  frank  and  appreciative  acknowledgment  of  the 
great  material  and  civil  benefits  which  the  Japanese  goverament 
has  brought  to  the  people  of  Korea  and  of  the  aims  and  purposes 
of  the  goverament  for  the  progre.ss  and  well-being  of  all  its  sub- 
jects. 

K.  E.  S. 


380 


4.  SOME  PROBLEMS  OF  MEDICAL  MISSIONS  IN  JKOREA 

DAVID  BOVAIRD,  M.D. 

Our  visit  to  Korea  was  necessarily  brief  and  hurried.  Mr. 
Day,  Mrs.  Bovaird  and  I arrived  in  Seoul  late  Saturday  even- 
ing, Mr.  Speer  accompanied  by  Mr.  Speers  having  preceded  us 
by  twelve  hours.  Sunday  was  spent  quietly  in  Seoul.  Then  Dr. 
Avison  and  I traveled  back  to  Masainpo  to  attend  the  annual 
meeting  of  the  Australian  Mission  and  present  the  work  of  the 
Union  ( Severance)  Medical  School  in  such  a way  as  to  secure 
their  further  co-operation.  The  previous  year  they  had  given 
part  of  the  time  of  two  men  to  the  school,  but  owing  to  exigen- 
cies within  their  own  mission  there  was  danger  that  neither  of 
these  would  return  this  year.  We  made  the  most  forceful  pleas 
we  could,  but  I have  not  heard  the  outcome,  as  the  mission  had 
taken  no  action  at  the  time  of  our  departure  from  Masampo, 
and  no  word  had  come  from  them,  when  I finally  left  Seoul. 
Tue.sday  and  Wednesday  were  spent  in  Seoul  in  learning  more 
of  the  work  of  the  Severance  Hosj)ital  and  the  Union  Medical 
School,  and  visiting  tlie  Japane.se  Hospital  and  Medical  School. 
Fortunately  I met  Dr.  Buttrick  of  the  China  Medical  Board, 
when  he  first  called  at  the  Medical  School  Tuesday  morning  and 
was  also  there  when  hp  I'etunied  Wednesday  with  the  other 
members  of  his  Board,  Drs.  Welch,  Flexner  and  Gates,  for  their 
official  visit.  Thursday  we  traveled  to  Pyeng  Yang,  arriving 
there  at  noon  and  remaining  just  twenty-four  hours.  Friday 
afternoon  we  traveled  to  Sven  Clinn  ; arriving  about  7 o’clock, 
we  visited  the  various  undertakings  tliere  including  the  hospital 
that  evening  (|»artly  by  mooiilighf  i and  the  next  morning  (Sal- 
nrday)  we  joined  Mr.  Sj)eei-  on  tlie  train  to  Mukden.  I can 
therefore  claim  no  deep  knowledge  of  the  work  and  any  opin- 
ions that  I may  express  are  open  to  the  criticism  that  they 
might  be  modified  or  changed  by  a more  complete  knowledge  of 
the  facts. 

A general  review  of  the  juesmit  state  of  the  medical  work  in 
Korea  certainly  gives  one  interested  in  it  a shock.  At  Fu.san  we 
were  met  by  Dr.  Irvin,  who  j)ointed  out  from  a distance  the 
desei’ted  hospital  and  school  standing  there.  At  Taiku,  we 
learneil  that  tlie  hosjiital  after  being  closed  for  a year  for  Dr. 
Fletcher's  furlough,  had  been  re-opened  for  three  months,  only 
to  be  closed  again  by  reason  of  the  doctor’s  illness,  and  that  it 
was  still  closed,  awaiting  his  convalescence.  At  Pyeng  Yang, 
the  hospital  had  just  been  cIosimI  by  reason  of  the  resignation  of 
Dr.  Wells.  Then*  remained  in  active*  .service  the  Baker  Hospital 
at  An  Dong  in  charge  of  Dr.  Smith,  whom  1 did  not  meet  at  all; 
the  l\(*nn(*dy  llosiiital  at  Kang  K(*i  in  charge  of  Dr.  Bigger;  the 
Sven  (’hnn  Hosjiital  of  Dr.  Sharrocks  (these  two  latter  men  1 
had  the  pleasure  of  meeting  at  Pyeng  Yang),  and  the  Severance 

381 


Hos|)Hal  and  Modical  School  in  Seoul.  That  three  out  of  seven 
hospilals  should  he  closed  at  one  lime  certainly  suj'f^asts  either 
foi-niidahle  ditliculties  in  conductirif?  them  or  weaknes.str^s  in  the 
system  on  which  they  are  conducted.  I)r.  Fletcher’s  sickm^s 
must  be  accepted  as  part  of  the  risk  any  undertakinj;  must  run. 
hut  just  as  was  .said  iu  relation  to  Siam,  it  seems  that  we  should 
contrive  in  some  way  to  have  a man  available  for  such  emerg- 
encies. There  were,  I know,  special  conditions  in  both  of  the 
other  cases  which  are  much  better  known  to  the  Board  than  to 
me.  It  seems,  however,  clear  that  the  situation,  whatever  the 
exj)lanation  may  be,  justifies  the  conclusion  that  the  work  we 
have  in  Korea  is  beyond  the  strength  of  the  present  me<lical 
staff,  and  either  that  staff  must  be  definitely  increases!  or  the 
work  cut  down.  The  present  .situation  is  quite  enough  to  dis- 
hearten others  and  to  lead  to  further  resignations. 

Just  what  should  be  done  is  a wide  que.stion,  involving  as  it 
does,  the  relative  needs  of  all  the  fields,  but  in  some  way  new 
strength  must  be  given  the  work  in  these  out-lying  stations  of 
Korea,  or  it  will  fail  entirely. 

While  in  Pyeng  Yang,  I looked  over  our  own  hospital  and 
also  the  new  in.stitution  about  to  be  opened  by  the  Methodist 
Board  under  Dr.  Folwell’s  care,  with  a view  to  the  question  of 
co-o])e7*ation.  No  great  loss  would  be  entailed  in  giving  up  our 
own  ho.spital.  The  IMethodist  hospital  is  a substantial  brick 
structure  now  nearing  completion,  capable  of  housing  25  to  30 
patient.s,  and  conveniently  near  our  own  institutions.  It  will 
have  a laboratory  and  operating  room,  will  be  supplied  with 
running  water,  and  will  be  well-lighted  and  heated.  It  would 
seem  altogether  best,  under  the  conditions  already  brought  out, 
to  join  with  them  in  the  maintenance  of  this  in.stitution,  rather 
than  to  seek  to  re-open  and  maintain  our  own. 

The  ho.spital  at  Syen  Chun  under  Dr.  Sharrocks’  care,  is  a 
small,  well  built,  and  verj-  attractive  institution.  We  had  had 
the  pleasure  of  making  the  doctor’s  acquaintance  at  the  mi.ssion 
meeting  in  Pyeng  Yang,  where  he  was  still  in  attendance  when 
we  visited  his  ho.spital.  The  wards  Avere  well  filled;  the  fur- 
nishings were  all  substantial  and  tasteful ; the  appearances 
throughout  indicated  active  work  and  good  management.  The 
small  di.spensary  in  which  the  work  had  been  carried  on  for 
many  years  before  the  coming  of  the  hospital,  was  shown  ns, 
and  we  could  appreciate  the  pleasure  it  must  now  give  Dr. 
Sharrocks  to  have  the  new  institution.  Bealizing  how  impos- 
sible it  is  for  the  medical  man  to  carry  on  satisfactory  work 
in  the.se  towns  or  cities  without  hospital  facilities,  we  can  un- 
derstand the  reasons  that  lie  back  of  the  present  conditions  in 
Korea,  where  we  have  more  hospitals  than  the  present  medical 
staff  can  properly  take  care  of.  Eveiy  medical  missionary 
working  for  a term  of  years  in  a new  community  will  require 
a hospital,  but  if  we  multi])ly  ho.sjiitals  we  must  also  increase 
the  staff,  so  as  to  have  some  men  in  reserve  to  meet  the  emerg- 
encies caused  by  furlough,  sickness,  or  resignation. 

382 


The  most  impressive  part  of  the  medical  work  in  Korea  is,  of 
course,  the  Severance  Hospital  and  the  Union  Medical  School 
in  Seoul  (Keigo).  The  compound  on  which  the  buildings  of 
these  institutions  and  the  sev^eral  missionary  homes  have  been 
built  is  very  favorably  situated  on  a hill  near  the  centre  of  the 
city,  bnt  is  so  limited  that  further  development  will  be  ham- 
pered unless  more  ground  in  the  immediate  neighborhood  can 
l)e  secured.  Fortunately  there  is  at  least  one  available  plot 
adjoining  the  tract  on  which  the  hospital  and  medical  school 
stand.  Architecturally  the  buildings  are  not  pleasing  and  both 
are  now  so  crowded  that  material  additions  should  be  made  to 
them  to  j)ro])erly  accommodate  the  work  being  carried  on  with- 
in them.  (Miarity  i)atients  are  now  quartered  in  wards  in  the 
ba.sement  of  the  hospital  and  the  various  departments  in  the 
medical  school  are  too  crowded  to  allow  altogether  satisfac- 
tory operation.  The  greatest  ingenuity  and  skill  have  been 
shown  in  using  every  inch  of  available  .space  to  the  best  purpo.se. 
r do  not  believe  I have  ever  seen  any  in.stitutions  in  which  so 
nuich  work  of  high  quality  was  being  done  in  the  same  area. 
The  nurses’  home  which  is  now  building  close  to  the  ho.spital, 
will  be  a material  addition  to  the  facilities  of  the  Training 
School  which  is  conducted  in  connection  with  the  hospital.  It 
is  the  constaTit  exj)erience  of  the  superintendents  of  these  school.s, 
either  at  home  or  in  the  foreign  field,  that  nothing  aids  them 
more  in  securing  desirable  candidates  for  the  school  than  hav- 
ing attractive  quarters  to  offer.  Moreover,  as  their  hours  are 
long  and  their  duties  exacting,  it  is  important  for  their  wel- 
fare that  their  hours  of  re.st  oi-  leisure  time  should  be  spent 
under  favorable  conditions  outside  the  hospital  itself.  For  these 
rea.sons  the  home  is  a real  nece.ssity. 

The  maximum  capacity  of  the  hospital  is  sixty  ( (!()  i beds. 
Under  ju-esent  conditions  they  rarely  have  more  than  45  patients. 
That  number  i.s.  of  cour.se.  altogether  insufficient  to  provide 
ad(*(|uate  clinical  instniction  for  the  students  of  the  medical 
school.  Thei-e  should  be  at  l(*ast  100  beds  available  for  that 
purpose.  Under  Drs.  Avison  and  Hirst  and  their  assistants, 
the  hospital  work  is  admirably  done.  The  Korean  women  make 
good  nurses  and  even  with  theii-  cramped  qtiarters  and  limited 
means,  the  wards  are  clean  and  attractive.  We  heard  numerous 
ti-ibntes  to  the  high  (piality  of  the  hospital  work.  Many  a major 
operation  upon  our  missionai-ies  or  members  of  their  families, 
which  would  formerly  have  re<|uired  return  to  the  T’nited  States, 
is  now  done  in  the  Se\eranc(‘  Hospital.  Not  only  onr  own  peo- 
|>le  but  mis.sionaries  in  the  service  of  other  boards  have  wel- 
coiikmI  the  hel]»  that  the  skilled  siM  vice  of  the  Severance  Hospital 
otfei's  them.  Sonn*  of  tln*m  ai(*  very  enthusiastic  in  their  grati- 
tude. In  other  instances  only  the  critical  need  of  themselves 
or  their  famili(*s  has  op(*n<Ml  tin*  (*yes  of  some  «»f  the  missif)iiar- 
i(*s  and  (Miabhvl  them  to  appi’(‘ciate  th(‘  need  of  the  apparently 
elaborate  (*<]uipment  which  such  an  institution  reqtiires.  Sev- 
erance Hospital  is  of  great  service  to  our  mission  as  a whole, 

383 


it  is  of  increasing  service  to  the  Korean  f>e<jple,  and  it  is  z\m>- 
lutely  essential  to  the  Medical  School.  There  seems  not  the 
least  doubt  that  if  enlarged  and  adequately  equipj)ed  and 
manned,  it  has  a great  future  before  it. 

The  Medical  School  was  of  absorbing  interest.  In  the  base- 
ment of  the  school  building  are  (juartered  a vei*}’  active  out- 
j)atient  department  with  medical  and  surgical  divisions,  and 
special  clinics  for  eye  and  ear,  nose  and  throat,  and  skin  dis- 
ease.s,  and  a pharmaceutical  department,  which  not  only  sup- 
plies the  medicines  for  the  dispensary  and  hospital,  but  manu- 
factures tablets  and  other  medic-inal  supplies  which  are  sold 
and  the  resulting  profits  eniployefl  in  the  further  development 
of  the  medical  work.  On  the  upper  floors  are  the  neces.sary  of- 
fices, a dental  clinic,  the  class-rooms,  and  laboratorie.s.  Even 
the  attic  is  in  use,  for  there  Dr.  Mills  has  stored  considerable 
collections  repre.senting  the  flora  of  Korea  and  conducts  a s-mall 
aquarium  for  .some  of  the  experiments  he  has  been  carrying  on 
to  determine  the  mode  of  transmission  of  the  lung  fluke  tdis- 
toma  Westerinaniil  a parasite  whose  ravages  are  of  great  im- 
portance in  Japan  and  Korea.  Compared  with  the  ef]uipment 
of  a first-class  school  in  the  United  States,  those  of  the  Seoul 
School  are  painfully  limited.  Looked  at  from  the  viewpoint  of 
the  location  (Seoul)  and  the  time  and  means  at  the  dispo.sal  of 
the  men  who  have  founded  and  developed  the  school,  they  are 
magnificent.  No  moderate  words  can  express  one’s  feelings  as 
he  realizes  what  has  been  accomplished  by  these  men,  living  on 
the  modest  salaries  of  missionaries,  receiving  such  meager  ap- 
propriations as  the  Board  has  been  able  to  allow  them,  and 
dependent  for  the  greater  part  of  the  development  of  their  school 
upon  their  own  earnings  in  what  we  would  term  private  prac- 
tice or  the  generosity  of  such  friends  as  Mr.  Severance.  Every- 
thing about  the  school  and  hospital  bears  the  impress  of  the 
remarkable  personality’  of  Dr.  A\dson.  To  his  far-sighted  plan- 
ning, energy,  resourcefulness,  indomitable  spirit  and  devotion 
their  present  development  is  in  a large  measure  due.  Ju.st  as 
long  as  he  is  able  to  work  we  may  be  .svj,re  that  there  will  be 
no  let  up  in  the  effort  to  bring  them  both  up  to  the  highest 
standard.  As  significant  of  the  character  of  the  man  two  little 
incidents  may  be  cited.  In  his  office  he  showed  me  a collection 
of  catalogues  of  medical  supply  houses  ( the  matter  of  supplies 
in  places  so  far  removed  from  the  sources  of  supply  is  one  of 
prime  importance)  with  a carefully  prepared  reference  index 
showing  in  which  any  needed  article  was  described  and  by  what 
firm  supplied.  To  the  query  as  to  who  kept  the  catalogues  filed 
and  the  index  up  to  date,  he  replied  that  thus  far  he  had  had 
to  do  the  work  him.self  but  he  hoped  soon  to  have  a clerk  trained 
to  take  that  duty  off  his  hands.  A little  later  he  showed  me 
a new  X-ray  apparatus  which  had  ju.st  been  in.stalled  and  in- 
(piiry  brought  out  the  fact  that  on  his  recent  furlough  he  had 
taken  a special  course  in  that  line  and  was  prepared  to  himself 
run  the  plant  till  such  time  as  a trained  assistant  could  be  ob- 

384 


tained ! In  the  early  days  he  had  personally  to  install  the  plumb- 
ing in  some  of  the  buildings  because  there  were  no  plumbers  in 
Seoul.  In  the  construction  of  the  nurses’  home  he  looks  after 
every  detail.  He  is  out  before  breakfast  to  oversee  some  of  the 
operations  going  on  about  the  grounds  and  till  late  at  night 
works  with  tireless  energy  on  his  varied  duties.  One  cannot  pay 
too  high  tribute  to  his  many-sided  abilities  and  consecrated  de- 
votion. 

One  of  his  most  difficult  tasks  has  been  to  get  the  needed  staff 
for  the  hospital  and  medical  school.  Dr.  Hir.st  has  proven  a 
very  valuable  assistant,  taking  entire  charge  of  the  hospital  and 
by  his  surgical  skill  adding  greatly  to  the  reputation  of  the  in- 
stitution. In  Dr.  Mills,  director  of  the  pathological  and  bac- 
teriological laboratories,  a man  of  unusual  ability  and  the  sort 
of  contagious  scientific  enthusiasm  that  makes  a great  teacher 
has  been  discovered.  Dr.  Ludlow  being  at  home  on  furlough  I 
had  no  opportunity  to  make  his  acquaintance. 

Miss  Esteb,  as  head  of  the  Training  School,  is  carrying  a bur- 
den far  beyond  her  .strength  and  should  have  the  aid  of  an  able 
a.ssLstant.  Dr.  Avison  has  been  striving  for  yeai;s  to  make  the 
medical  school  a union  enterprise  and  has  drawn  up  and  sub- 
mitted to  the  various  Korean  missions  and  their  boards  a plan 
for  .such  co-operation.  Though  none  of  the  missions  or  boards 
has  yet  given  formal  approval  to  the  plan,  several  of  them.  South- 
ern Presbyterian,  Northern  and  Southern  Methodist,  and  the 
Australian,  have  tacitly  a.ssented  by  sending  men  to  aid  in  the 
work  of  teaching.  Deference  has  already  been  made  to  our  trip 
to  Masampo  to  prevail,  if  po.ssible,  upon  the  Australian  mission 
to  continue  the  aid  given  last  year  in  that  way.  For  one  reason 
or  another  there  was  doubt  whether  they  would  not  have  to 
rely  for  this  year  upon  tho.se  members  of  our  own  mission  named 
above  and  a few  Koreans,  graduates  of  their  own  school,  who 
have  remained  in  the  work  and  proven  worthy  assistants. 

The  present  is  a critical  time  for  the  medical  scliool.  The 
Japanese  authorities  are  pressing  them  to  establish  separate 
departments  of  anatomy  and  pathology',  with  buildings  of  their 
own.  They  cannot  at  pre.sent  obtain  dissection  material  for 
the  teaching  of  anatomy.  Dr.  Avison  was  planning  to  secure 
two  .Tapanese  teachers,  one  of  whom  sliould  have  charge  of  the 
anatomy  and  through  liim  he  hoped  to  be  able  to  get  the  neces- 
.sarA’  material  for  di.ssection,  but  at  the  time  he  did  not  know 
where  the  funds  to  pay  these  salaries  were  to  be  secured.  The 
Japanese  authorities  have  ahso  instituted  state  examinations  for 
license  to  practice  medicine  in  Korea,  just  as  we  have  them  in 
our  own  States.  Out  of  the  first  class  of  fifteen  graduates  of 
the  school  to  trj’  these  examinations,  but  eight  passed.  Two  of 
the  failures  tried  again  later  and  succeeded.  Out  of  a second 
class  of  seven  (the  number  having  been  reduced  by  higher  re- 
quirements on  the  part  of  the  school),  six  took  the  examina- 
tions and  four  pass^. 

385 

13 — Report  of  Deputaitlon. 


It  is  clear  that  if  the  school  is  to  meet  the  requirements  of 
the  Japanese  authorities,  it  must  have  more  equipment  and  a 
larger  faculty. 

Acro.ss  the  city  in  a beautiful  park,  formerly  the  grounds  of 
one  of  the  King’s  palaces,  .stands  the  Japanese  Medical  School 
and  Ho.spital.  The  Medical  School,  .so  far  as  it  was  shown  us, 
was  nothing  more  than  a large  two-storj'  wooden  building  full 
of  class  rooms.  No  laboratoi-ies  or  apparatus  of  any  kind  were 
in  evidence.  The  Hospital,  however,  was  a hand.some  brick 
structure,  capable  of  taking  care  of  300  patient.s,  wdth  spacious 
laboratories  and  ample  equipment  of  the  most  modem  char- 
acter. In  the  hospital  was  an  out-patient  department  \vith 
special  departments  of  every  kind  and  numbers  of  physicians 
and  as.sistants  in  each.  The  roster  of  the  meflical  faculty  in- 
cludes thirty  or  forty  names  and  the  total  staff  of  ho.«pital  and 
medical  school  are  said  to  number  .sixtj'.  The  grounds  about 
the  hospital  are  so  .spacious  that  in  one  quarter  they  have  erect- 
ed a number  of  bungalows  in  which  private  patients  (princes, 
etc.),  may  live,  while  seeking  the  services  of  the  hospital  staff. 
They  have  an  abundance  of  nur.ses  and  assistants  throughout 
the  institution.  The  government  evidently  spares  no  expense 
to  make  it  a first-rate  institution.  The  patients  and,  I under- 
stand, the  students  in  this  institution  are  almost  wholly  Jap- 
anese. 

In  the  face  of  these  facts  the  statements  that  the  present  is 
'a  critical  time  for  the  Union  Medical  School  is  surely  ju.stified. 
The  requirements  of  the  Japanese  authorities  as  to  the  institu- 
tion are  entirely  just,  no  more  than,  indeefl  not  .so  much  as.  in 
one  way  or  another  is  demanded  of  medical  schools  in  our  own 
countr;^^  If  justification  were  necessary,  it  could  easily  be  found 
in  the  pronouncements  of  the  Committee  on  Medical  Schools  of 
the  American  Medical  Association,  or  the  Report  on  Medical 
Education  in  the  U.  S.  by  Mr.  Abraham  Flexner.  If  the  school 
is  to  continue,  it  must  be  raised  to  a higher  standard.  Every- 
thing possible  has  been  done  with  the  men  and  means  at  its 
command.  To  conform  to  higher  .standards  it  must  have  both 
more  men  and  more  money.  Men.  and  pos.sibly  to  .some  extent 
additional  funds,  may  be  had  by  securing  the  co-operation  of 
the  other  mission  bodies  in  Korea,  but  the  financial  help  from 
those  sources  will  be  small.  In  the  end  the  responsibility  of 
determining  the  future  of  the  school  will  doubtless  rest  upon 
our  Board. 

As  already  stated,  the  China  Medical  Board  of  the  Rocke- 
feller Foundation  visited  the  institution  while  we  were  there, 
and  Dr.  Avi.son  showed  them  over  the  institution  and  supplied 
them  with  all  of  the  infonnation  they  requested  regarding  it. 
That  they  received  a favorable  impression  of  the  equipment  of 
the  institution  and  the  quality  of  the  work  thus  far  done  I 
have  no  doubt,  but  whether  they  include  Korea  within  the  sphei-e 
of  their  operations  or  have  any  purpose  of  lending  aid,  I have 
not  heard.  . . 


386 


The  question  must  be  faced  as  to  whether  the  school  is  of 
vital  importance  and  is  to  be  maintained  at  whatever  cost.  That  it 
is  rendering  vahiable  service  there  is  no  doubt.  There  are  40 
to  50  students  in  it  this  year  and  doubtless  the  number  will 
increase  as  our  schools  and  academies  turn  out  more  men  fitted 
to  undertake  such  studies.  Its  graduates  are  in  a number  of 
instances  serving  mission  hospitals.  Indeed  our  best  hope  of  ' 
properly  taking  care  of  the  hospitals  we  already  have  in  Korea, 
lies  in  securing  from  this  school  Christian  Koreans  who  are 
qualified  to  act  as  assistants  or  to  conduct  the  work  in  cases  of 
emergency.  (Dr.  Avison  kindly  supplied  me  with  a list  of  all 
the  graduates  and  their  present  occupations,  but  that  was  un- 
fortunately lost  with  all  my  other  data  in  the  hand-bag  stolen 
at  Peng  Pu,  China,  and  I am  forced  to  write  this  report  from 
memory"  and  the  aid  of  Mr.  Speer’s  notes.)  The  Christian  com- 
munity needs  Christian  physicians.  The  church  in  Korea  deep- 
ly needs  the  influence  in  it  of  men  versed  in  science  and  yet 
Christians.  There  are  some  who  believe  that  when  the  Church 
abandoned  medical  work  in  Japan  and  left  medical  education 
entirely  to  government  auspices,  it  lost  ground  which  it  has 
never  been  able  to  regain.  If  the  T^nion  Medical  School  fails, 
the  end  of  all  our  medical  work  in  Korea  is  not  far  off.  I am 
confident  that  everyone  who  has  seen  it  will  hope  and  pray  not 
only  that  failure  may  be  averted,  but  that  the  means  may  be 
found  to  enable  it  to  realize  the  high  possibilities  of  \isefulness 
that  lie  before  it. 


387 


5.  PEOPEKTY,  TREASUKY  AND  BUSINESS  QUESTIONS 


^ BY  DWIOIIT  H.  DAY 

Leaviii"  Manila  late  in  the  afternoon  of  September  3rd,  we 
sailed  in  the  S.  S.  “China”  for  Nagasaki,  Japan.  When  two 
days  out  a severe  windstorm,  which  developed  into  a typhoon, 
delayed  us  two  days.  The  Captain  had  to  put  about  twice  and 
ride  out  the  blow  for  fear  of  going  on  the  Japan  coast.  How- 
ever, Ave  arriv^ed  safely  and  disembarked  at  Naga.saki  about  noon 
on  September  nth.  We  crossed  Japan  and  the  Japan  Sea,  sail- 
ing from  Shiinf)noseki  for  Eusan,  Korea,  the  trip  requiring  one 
day  and  night.  It  seemed  expedient  for  our  party  to  separate 
and  travel  i!i  two  companies,  both  on  this  journey  and  while  in 
Korea,  my  own  itinerary  being  as  follows: 


Sgpt.  4lh-r)th  Sailing  from  Manila  to  Nagasaki,  S.  S. 

“Cliina"’  

“ nth-tlth  Rail,  boat  and  rail  from  Nagasaki  to 

Seoul,  via  Shimonoseki  and  Fusan . . 

“ 12!h-14tli  In  Seoul  

“ l.'jth  Rail  from  Seoul  to  P.veng  Yang 

“ Kith-lTth  In  P.veng  Yang  and  S.ven  Chun 

“ ISth  Rail  from  Syen  Chun  to  Mukden 


5%  days 

2%  “ 

.3 

1 day 

2 days 
1 day 


Summary  : — 


Boat  to  .Japan  .5%  days 

Transportation  in  the  Korea  District 4%  " 

In  Korean  Mission  Stations 5 “ 


Total  number  of  days  consumed  from  Manila  to  Mukden..  15  days 

Korea  still  holds  its  place  as  the  land  of  encouragement,  for 
the  evangelistic  zeal  and  the  glow  of  the  Christian  heart  so 
marked  from  the  beginning  of  the  work  in  the  country  are  quite 
apparent.  The  churches  in  Seoul  were  full  on  Sunday  morning 
and  in  Pyeng  Yang  on  a regular  prayer-meeting  evening,  though 
no  visitors  were  announced,  we  found  700  and  1,000  respectively 
in  the  two  churches  visited.  Pyeng  Yang  has  her  “seven 
churches,”  the  mother  church  or  central  church,  and  six  that 
have  all  sprung  from  her.  All  of  the  church  buildings  have 
been  built  by  the  congregations  themselves,  without  outside  help 
except  that  about  one-third  of  the  cost  of  the  original  structure 
was  contributed  from  abroad.  In  the  last  general  assembly  of 
the  Presbyterian  Church  in  Korea,  one  hundred  churches  were 
represented,  eighty  of  these  being  “self-supporting”  and  sending 
delegates.  Their  own  foreign  missionaries  who  have  been  in 
Shantung,  China,  came  home  and  made  reports  on  their  activi- 
ties and  prospects.  There  are  some  1,076  “self-supporting” 
churches  including  all  denominations  in  Korea  and  about  700 
schools  supported  by  church  congregations.  It  is  an  interesting 
study  to  compare  these  results  with  those  in  Siam  where,  in 

388 


spite  of  seventy-six  years  of  missionary  work  and  consecrated 
and  devoted  workers,  there  is  only  one  church  that  can  be  called 
self-supporting';  or  with  those  in  the  Philippines.  It  must  be  ad- 
mitted, however,  that  the  word  “self-supporting”  is  used 
with  varying  meaning.  Korea  missionaries  would  be  the 
last  to  claim  that  their  .success  was  due  to  the  quality  of  the 
mi.ssionaries  in  Korea ; nor  can  it  be  altogether  attributed 
to  a different  system  followed  in  Korea,  though  doubtless  with- 
out the  immense  stress  laid  from  the  very  beginning  by  the 
mi.ssionaries  upon  self-.support  and  evangelistic  effort,  it  would 
never  have  come  to  pass.  But  all  recognize  also  the  peculiar 
receptivity  of  the  Koreans  to  the  word  of  hope  and  refuge 
which  was  bronglit  to  them  in  the  Go.spel  me.ssage.  No  mission 
work  in  Korea  and  no  denomination  working  thei'e  is  without 
ifs  victories  and  its  historj'  of  the  wonderful  progre.ss  of  the 
Gos])el.  True  if  is  that  fhe  doctrine  is  of  a very  simple  type 
and  that  the  Korean  church  has  not  yet  been  called  upon  fo 
]>ass  tlirough  the  severe  tests  of  modern  critici.sm  whicli  have 
tried  the  Chnrcli  of  Christ  in  Japan,  and  it  remains  to  be  .seen 
how  it  will  meet  that  day.  It  certainly  has  the  trutli  and  the 
trutli  has  worked  tliese  results  tliat  are  claimed  for  it  through- 
out the  nation,  and  it  is  hardly  likely  that  modern  destructive 
criticism  will  do  more  than  confirm  and  establish  its  leaders  in 
the  e.ssential  elements  of  the  Gospel  which  they  have  trusted 
and  tested. 

PROPERTY  AND  TREASURY  MATTERS 

The  projterties  of  the  Board  in  Korea  are  secured  as  to  title 
.so  far  as  that  is  possible  aud  it  is  believed  they  are  in  no  jeop- 
ardy what.soever.  In  most  cases  title  is  held  by  the  Treasurer 
of  the  mission  acting  on  behalf  of  the  Board;  in  .some  cases 
other  individuals  still  retain  title  in  their  names  but  have  exe- 
cmted  suitable  papers  showing  that  the  j>roperties  concerned  are 
held  by  them  in  trust  for  the  Board.  As  soon  as  the  Jai)anese 
G(»vernment  is  ready  to  j)ermit  the  organizing  of  a Shadan  or 
incorporated  association  for  the  holding  of  ])roperty  this  will 
be  done  and  all  the  i)ropei-ties  of  the  Board  will  be  placed  in  its 
keeping.  The  church  will  always  be  indebted  to  the  jjioneers 
who  .secured  the  .sites  which  are  so  important  aud  valuable  to- 
day, often  putting  their  own  money  into  them  until  the  Board 
could  aj)])ropriate  the  funds  to  buy  them.  Fine  properties  in 
Seoul  were  secured  in  this  way  as  well  as  most  of  the  land  in 
I’yeng  Yang  now  constituting  i)erhai»s  the  most  attractive  mi.s- 
sion  i)roj)erty  we  have  .s(hmi.  In  Fusan,  the  abandoned  station, 
the  hosj)ital  and  residence  buildings  are  ra])idl3'  deteriorating 
and  will  s<m)u  be  worthless.  It  is  scarcely  possible  to  protect 
them  fi-om  depredation  and  misu.se  and  their  sale  would  be 
welcomed.  Some  months  ago  it  .seemed  likely  that  they  could 
be  sold  to  some  Jai)anese  merchants,  but  the  .sale  fell  through 
because  of  war  conditions.  In  the  meantime  Fu.san  is  becoming 
more  and  more  important  as  a port  and  the  land  it.self  has  risen 
in  value. 


389 


The  entire  Korea  Mission  rejoices  in  a mission  treasurer  who 
was  sent  to  the  field  to  take  charge  of  the  treasury  work  and 
who  for  seven  years  has  most  ably  conducted  it.  He  centralizer! 
all  the  accounts  at  Seoul,  introducing  a new  and  simple  system 
whereby  regular  requisitions  for  funds  are  made  by  individual 
missionaries  and  he  in  turn  can  debit  or  credit  them  as  the  case 
may  be,  with  the  least  duplication  and  waste  of  effort.  How 
much  this  means  in  time,  .saved  especially  for  fonner  station 
trea.surer.s,  it  would  be  hard  to  overestimate. 

The  following  paragraphs  are  taken  from  the  mission  treas- 
urer’s reports  to  the  mission  at  the  annual  meeting  September, 
1915  ; 

“During  the  year  I have  had  charge  of  eight  funds,  represent- 
ing an  annual  amount  of  over  ^250,000  or  half  a million  yen. 
Tliese  accounts  necessitated  the  making  of  reports  to  the  Board, 
Mi.ssion,  Station,  Federal  Council,  I’re.sbyterian  Council,  Seoul 
Presbytery,  College,  etc.  Numerous  questions  affecting  prop- 
erty in  general,  taxes,  organization  of  holding  body,  etc.,  have 
been  taken  iij)  with  tlie  Governor-General  and  the  American 
Consul.” 

And  from  his  ])er.sonal  report  llie  following: 

“A  great  deal  of  time  has  been  spent  in  looking  up  articles 
and  making  jHirchases  for  the  friends  in  the  out-stations  and 
it  has  been  a pleasure  to  be  able  in  a small  way  to  assist  them.” 
....“With  Dr.  Clark  1 have  charge  of  four  churcdies  and  two 
groui)s,  the  oversight  of  a helper  and  a Bible  woman ; and  the 
work  has  made  steady  progress.”. ..  .“During  the  year  I per- 
formed two  marriage  ceremonies,  attended  funeral  .services,  ex- 
amined candidates  for  church  membership  and  performed  all 
the  duties  in  connection  with  the  church  except  baptizing.” 

There  are  some  250  separate  accounts  on  this  treasurer’s 
books  and  he  does  all  of  the  bookkeeping  himself.  He  says:  “In 
viewing  the  work  of  the  year,  we  cannot  but  give  thanks  to  God 
for  His  loving  kindues.ses  and  tender  mercies;  for  the  many 
ble.ssings  bestowed  and  les.sons  learned.  He  has  permitted  us  to 
have  a share  in  his  work  and  has  given  us  a measure  of  suc- 
cess during  the  year.  When  we  look  back  on  what  might  have 
been  accomplished  had  we  been  faithful  to  every  opportunity  of 
service,  it  makes  iis  wonder  that  we  were  used  at  all,  and  ahso 
very  humble  and  not  boastful.” 

The  Korea  Mission  had  for  the  year  ending  March  31,  1915, 
ten  per  cent,  of  all  the  Board’s  missionaries  in  the  field,  or  127 
and  seven  per  cent,  of  the  total  appropriations  bv  the  Board  or 
•1157,800. 

There  seems  to  be  need  for  special  consideration  to  be  given 
to  one  or  two  schools  of  the  mission  that  are  sutfering  for  lack 
of  funds  and  that  are  dependent  upon  the  efforts  of  individual 
missionaries  in  raising  money  each  year  to  take  care  of  the 
budget.  This  becomes  a burden  too  great  to  bear  year  after 

390 


year  and  it  should  not  be  asked  or  expected  of  those  in  charge. 
The  young  women’s  academy  in  Seoul  needs  some  |500  a year 
more  than  is  allotted  to  it  under  the  appropriations  and  since 
those  who  are  directing  it  are  unwilling  to  lower  its  standard, 
they  must  finance  the  amount  of  the  deficit  each  year  or  give 
up  the  work.  This  school  has  a splendid  new  dormitory  but  no 
recitation  building,  the  girls  using  old  Korean  buildings  for 
their  school  work.  In  one  or  two  other  cases  it  would  seem 
that  educational  work  should  come  in  for  special  consideration 
in  connection  with  any  increase  in  appropriations. 


391 


V 


THE  MISSIONS  IN  CHINA 


1.  Letters  from  Different  Fields 395-413 

(1)  Work  amid  Human  Life  at  its  Maximum  Den- 

sity: Canton  395-398 

(2)  A Memorable  Sunday  Morning  in  Tientsin.  . 398-403 

(3)  Peking  and  Tsinanfu 403-406 

(4)  The  Three  Stations  of  Kiang  An 407-410 

(5)  The  Old  That  is  Still  New:  Central  China.  . 410-413 

2.  The  General  Environment  of  Missions  in  China  at  the 

Present  Time  414-432 

3.  Some  Present-day  Mission  Questions  in  China 433-457 

4.  A Review  of  the  Medical  Mission  Work  in  China.  ..  . 458-468 

5.  Property,  Treasury,  and  Business  Questions 469-480 


V.  THE  MISSIONS  IN  CHINA 


1.  LETTERS  FROM  DIFFERENT  FIELDS  IN  CHINA 

(1)  WORK  AMID  HUMAN  LIFE  AT  ITS  MAXIMUM  DENSITY  ICANTON 

S.  S.  ‘‘Nubia,”  China  Sea, 

May  22,  1915. 

We  have  just  come  from  a wonderful  visit  to  the  Canton  sta- 
tion and  to  all  who  are  interested  in  the  work  there  and  particu- 
larly to  those  who  have  directed  their  gifts  to  this  field  we  wish 
to  write  now  while  our  impressions  are  fresh  and  vivid,  about 
what  the  missionaries  are  doing  in  this  huge,  teeming  city.  Per- 
haps nowhere  else  in  the  world,  unless  it  be  in  the  tenement 
district  of  the  lower  east  side  in  New  York  does  one  get  such 
an  impression  of  the  monstrous  mass  of  human  life  as  he  gets 
in  Canton.  If  he  comes  on  the  night  boat  from  Hong  Kong  he 
looks  out  in  the  misty  light  of  the  early  morning  upon  the  tens 
of  thousands  of  the  boat  population,  the  people  who  are  born 
and  live  and  die  on  their  boat  homes  on  the  river.  Their  boats 
surround  the  steamer  the  instant  it  is  anchored  and  the  clam- 
orous competition  of  the  boats  is  only  one  of  the  symptoms 
which  meet  one  at  ever^"  turn  of  the  cea.seless  struggle  for  life 
in  China.  The  moment  one  steps  a.shore  this  sense  of  mass  4 
and  pressure  is  intensified.  Even  to  one  who  has  been  here  be- 
fore the  sen.se  of  cea.seless  movement  and  innumerable  multitude 
is  undiminished  as  he  goes  through  the  narrow,  crowded,  steam- 
ing, odorous  .streets  of  this  amazing  city.  The  powerful  and 
ever  enlarging  way  in  which  Christianity  is  striking  in  to  this 
.seething  life  is  a miracle  of  God  and  a monument  to  missionary 
faith  and  courage.  One  can  only  look  at  what  has  been  ac- 
complisheil  and  tlien  back  at  Ttoliert  Morison’s  beginnings  of  a 
century  ago  and  wonder  and  thank  God  and  take  fresh  hope. 

There  is  a great  network  of  Christian  activities  now  spread 
over  the  city  and  province  of  Canton  but  I must  pick  out  and 
describe  briefly  only  the  work  of  our  own  Presbyterian  mis.sion. 

It  is  carrieil  on  in  three  main  centers. 

The  largest  center  where  the  greatest  expansion  of  the  future 
is  i)lanned  is  at  Fati,  across  tlie  river  from  the  main  city.  Here 
there  are  three  great  institutions  and  one  of  tlie  manj'  Chine.se 
Pre.sbyterian  churches.  The  oldest  institution  here  is  the  Fati 
Sch(X)l  for  boys  running  from  a j)riinar\'  grade  up  through  a 
middle  .school  and  including  a school  for  evangelists.  There 
are  alKuit  three  hundred  boys.  At  the  orderly  and  reverent 
chapel  service  which  we  attendcnl  at  .seven  o’clock  in  the  morn- 
ing Mr.  Noyes  a.sked  those  wlio  were  looking  forward  to  the 
ministry'  to  rise  and  forty  or  more  fine,  capable  young  men  arose. 

395 


There  is  a deep  religious  earnestness  in  the  school  and  the  older 
boys  themselves  carry'  on  the  work  of  the  primary'  school.  The 
late  Mr.  Severance  gave  the  school  nearly  S25,000  gold  and  a 
beautiful  new  building  bearing  his  name  is  nearing  completion. 
Just  adjoining  the  boys’  schools  is  a large  tract  of  ten  acres 
to  which  the  advance  departments  of  the  True  Light  Seminary 
for  Girls  are  to  be  removed  to  the  buildings  for  which  a gen- 
erous woman  in  Pennsylvania  has  given  S.50,000.  Next  to  this 
property  is  the  school  for  the  blind  under  the  care  of  Dr.  Marj' 
Niles,  where  nearly  two  hundred  blind  boys  and  girls  are  being 
taught,  many  of  them  little  girls  re.scued  from  evil  .slavery  and 
supported  by  the  city  of  Gan  ton.  T should  not  envy  the  callous 
and  irredeemable  heart  of  the  disbeliever  in  missions  who 
could  see  unmoved  and  unconverted  these  little  blind  children 
leading  one  another  by  the  hand  or  blissfully  learning  to  read, 
with  their  little  lives  now  for  the  first  time  overflowing  with 
peace  and  happiness.  Next  beyond  the  school  for  the  blind  is 
the  refuge  for  the  insane,  the  last  work  of  Dr.  John  G.  Kerr, 
one  of  the  mo.st  famous  and  beloved  medical  missionaries  ever 
sent  out.  This  is  the  only  in.stitution  for  the  insane  in  China. 
Dr.  Kerr  and  ^Irs.  Kerr  who  is  still  giving  her  life  to  the  work 
began  by  taking  a few  of  these  helple.ss  people  into  the  house 
in  which  they  themselves  lived.  Now  there  are  a dozen  build- 
ings almost  all  provided  by  gifts  in  China  and  over  four  hun- 
dred men  and  women  patients  mo.st  of  whom  recover  under  wise 
treatment  and  can  return  to  their  homes  and  work.  A picture 
of  the  Good  Samaritan  is  the  only  picture  in  the  little  white 
chapel  which  the  quiet  patients  attend  and  surely  nowhere  is 
that  ]>icture  more  appropriate  than  here  where  Christian  love 
alone  is  trying  to  recover  some  of  this  pitiful  human  wreckage, 
so  much  of  it  the  wreckage  of  fear  and  sin. 

The  immense  work  on  these  Fati  compounds  alone  would  ju.s- 
tify  ten  times  the  expenditure  of  our  church  in  Canton,  but  this 
is  only  part  of  it.  A second  great  center  is  in  the  eastern  sec- 
tion of  the  city.  Here  is  the  large  Fir.st  Church,  an  extensive 
kindergarten  establishment  under  erection,  and  the  important 
work  of  the  David  Gregg  Hospital  for  women  and  children,  the 
Hackett  ^Medical  College  for  Women  and  the  Turner  Training 
School  for  Nurses.  It  is  planned  to  unite  all  the  medical  forces 
of  Canton  in  the  development  of  this  as  the  one  institution  for 
the  training  of  women  doctors.  Dr.  Mary  Fulton’s  removal  to 
Shanghai,  to  give  herself  to  the  preparation  of  Medical  books 
in  Chinese,  leaves  this  burden  of  work  upon  Dr.  Allyn  and  Dr. 
Hackett  and  Miss  Stockton.  These  three  women  should  have 
two  more  women  doctors  at  once  to  help  them  care  for  their 
hospital  and  make  their  medical  college,  the  best  institution  in 
southern  China  for  sending  out  Christian  women  doctors. 

The  third  center  of  work  is  the  oldest.  Here  at  Kuk-fau  Dr. 
Kerr  did  his  great  work  in  connection  with  the  hospital  sup- 
ported jointly  by  the  Board  and  the  Canton  Medical  Missionary 

396 


Society,  founded  in  the  early  days  by  men  like  Peter  Parker, 
Thomas  H.  Cooledge,  John  C.  Green,  whose  gifts  founded  the 
Scientific  School  in  Princeton  and  the  Lawrenceville  School,  S. 
Wells  Williams  and  others.  This  hospital  is  now  under  the 
care  of  the  Canton  Christian  College  doctors  but  our  mission’s 
doctors  co-operate.  Adjoining  this  hospital  is  the  present  plant 
of  the  True  Light  Seminary,  an  institution  which  for  more  than 
a generation  has  been  sending  o\it  Chinese  girls  and  women 
who  have  borne  in  their  hearts  and  on  their  faces  the  new  light 
of  Christ.  There  are  more  than  four  hundred  now  in  the  school 
ranging  from  primary  girls  to  married  women  and  the  school 
has  as  strong  a body  of  missionary  women  working  in  it  as  I 
know  of  in  any  mission  school.  The  Second  Presbyterian  Church 
is  also  situated  here.  The  Chine.se  hate  to  go  out  in  the  rain, 
but  on  a hot,  wet  night  with  only  twenty-four  hours’  notice 
this  church  was  crowded  with  young  men  and  women  and  it 
was  inspiring  to  see  many  of  them  rise  all  over  the  congrega- 
tion and  come  forward  when  the  call  was  given  for  those  who 
were  ready  at  once  to  decide  for  Christ  and  to  join  his  church. 
This  Second  Church  urgently  needs  a new  church  building  and 
deserves  the  little  help  that  it  asks  in  its  building  enterpri.se. 

In  addition  to  all  this  work  tlie  mission  co-operates  with  the 
Kung  I Medical  School  and  Hos])ital  maintained  by  the  Chinese 
but  under  the  sui)ervision  of  foreign  missionaries  headed  by  Dr. 
Todd  who  have  a tm*  hand  in  tlieir  religious  influence.  It  joins 
also  with  the  Union  Theological  Seminary  with  six  other  mis- 
sionary agencies  and  it  carries  on  a far-extending  evangelistic 
work  in  tlie  citj'  and  out  through  the  province  where  es})ecially 
in  the  Four  Districts  there  are  scores  of  congregations,  many 
of  them  with  beautiful  (“haj)els,  toward  which  the  Chinese  Chris- 
tians in  California  and  Aii.stralia,  who  come  chiefly  from  this 
region,  have  contributed  generously. 

I must  not  omit  mention  of  the  Canton  Christian  College,  an 
independent  institution  but  clo.sely  related  in  symi)athy  and  pdr- 
])Ose  and  .service  to  the  work  of  the  mi.ssions.  It  has  a fine  body 
of  workers,  high  ideals,  a genuine  missionary  spirit  and  seeks 
to  do  for  the  missions  in  southern  China  the  work  of  higher 
Christian  college  (Mlucation.  We  .saw  its  growing  i)lant  and 
students  and  were  delighted  with  the  institution. 

We  h ave  met  travelers  who  have  visited  t’antou  and  have  .seen 
absolutely  nothing  of  all  this  work.  They  have  seen  the  thou- 
.sands  u])on  thousands  of  boats  of  every  kind  crowded  ui)on  the 
river,  and  they  have  gone  through  the  reeking  streets  and  smelt 
the  incense  burning  in  the  temj)les  and  watched  the  half  naked 
mas.ses  of  busy  ]KH)j)le  toiling  under  the  burden  that  is  called 
life.  They  have  heard  the  unintelligible  clamor  of  the  strange 
tongue  and  been  dazed  by  the  yellow,  sodden  rush  of  human 
movement  like  the  tidal  ebb  and  flow  of  the  muddy  river  and 
they  come  away  thinking  and  saying  that  the  idea  of  penetrat- 
ing and  transforming  all  this  by  Christianity  is  a delusion. 
They  would  think  and  speak  differently  if  they  had  seen  what 

397 


we  have  seen  and  especially  if  they  were  able  to  compare  it,  as 
I can,  with  conditions  of  fifteen  or  twenty  j^ears  ago.  Then, 
most  of  the  work  which  I have  described  did  not  exist.  No 
such  crowded  company  of  eager  listeners  could  have  l>een  gath- 
ered as  met  that  wet  night  in  the  Second  Church  and  there 
would  have  been  no  re.sponse  at  all  then  to  a call  for  immediate 
decisions  for  Christ  and  His  Church.  Then,  I think  there  was 
scarcely  an  independent  or  self-supjjorting  church  in  the  prov- 
ince, now  there  are  many,  and  the  great  work  of  propagating 
Christianity  is  being  carried  forward  by  Chine.se  Christians 
themselves.  Then,  even  here  in  Canton,  exposed  for  a hundred 
years  to  western  influences,  the  old,  stagnant  ideals  were  .still 
dominant  and  all  inclusive.  Now,  the  yeast  of  new  principles 
has  sunk  down  deej)  into  the  great  mass  of  Chinese  thought  and 
feeling  and  though  the  mass  looks  still  the  same,  the  ferment  of 
the  new  life  is  there.  Hai)py  ought  we  to  be  to  whom  God  has- 
given  so  large  a share  in  a work  so  great  and  we  ought  to  be 
ready  also,  as  the  greatest  and  most  succassful  propagator  of 
Christianity  said  he  wa.s,  to  do  whatever  is  in  our  power  and  to 
make  whatever  sacrifice  may  be  required  in  order  that  the  great 
opportunities  6f  these  days  may  not  be  allowed  to  slip  by. 

R.  E.  S. 

(2)  A MEMORABLE  SUNDAY  MORNING  IN  TIENTSIN 

En  route  Tientsin  to  T.sinanfu, 
Sept.  27,  1915. 

We  had  left  Peking  early  in  the  morning  expecting  to  get 
through  to  Tsinaufu,  three  hundred  milas  to  the  .south,  before 
midnight,  to  sjiend  the  next  day  which  was  Sunday  there,  and 
to  be  j)re.sent  on  Monday  at  the  dedication  of  the  new  hospital, 
but  at  Tung  Chow  junction,  before  we  had  jiassed  through  the 
last  wall  of  the  enormous  Chine.se  capital,  an  open  switch  da 
railed  our  train  and  left  the  engine  and  front  cars  twisted  and 
helpless  amid  a mass  of  wrecked  rails  and  roadway.  It  wa.s 
three  hours  belore  we  were  taken  on  to  Tientsin  in  a train 
brought  up  from  the  farther  side  of  the  accident.  The  last 
train  for  the  south  had  left  before  we  arrived  and  as  a little 
old-fashioned  observance  of  the  Sabbath  day  is  no  bad  thing 
in  China,  we  concluded  to  have  a real  day  of  rest  in  Tientsin 
and  have  been  thanking  God  ever  since  for  the  accident  that 
gave  it  to  us. 

A Sabbath  quietness  rested  on  the  foreign  concessions  when 
we  woke  in  the  morning.  The  only  morning  sound  that  floated 
up  to  us  across  Victoria  Park  was  the  call  of  the  bugler  in  the 
American  barracks  over  which  the  Stars  and  Stripes  were  fly- 
ing, the  only  visible  flag  across  the  housetops.  It  has  been  odd 
to  see  American  soldiers  patrolling  the  railroad  from  Shan  Hai 
Kuan  to  Tientsin  and  to  yieet  more  of  them  than  soldiers  of 
any  other  nationality  and  it  has  made  one  glad  to  find  them  the 

398 


trimmest  and  most  soldier-like  of  all  the  troops  in  the  interna- 
tional force  in  northern  China.  Breakfast  over,  we  set  out  to 
find  our  way  to  the  independent  Christian  church  in  the  heart 
of  the  native  city,  opening  our  spirits  as  we  went  along  to  every 
impression  that  the  strange  antipodal  life  about  us  could  make 
upon  us  and  to  eveiw  reflection  it  might  suggest.  There  were 
the  quiet  of  the  closed  foreign  establishments,  the  stir  and 
action  of  the  open  Chinese  city,  the  street  car  conductor  with 
his  long  finger  nails  testifying  to  the  incapacity  of  the  race  for 
progress  until  it  uses  its  scissors  on  its  fingers  as  well  as  on  its 
toes  and' its  queues,  the  big  drug  stores  prospering  on  the  sick- 
ness and  credulity  of  the  people,  the  ingenious  and  ingenuous 
signs,  .some  in  Chine.se,  some  in  English — “The  Virtue  and 
Bighteou.sness  High  Building  Hotel,”  “Immediate  Death  to  Bed- 
bugs,” “Butchery,  Sainsage  Shop  and  Breakfast  Boom,”  “Hair- 
dresser: Shares  Come  from  Shanghai,”  “Flowers  of  All  Kinds 
and  For  All  Seasons  May  be  Obtained  at  Any  Time,” — the 
money-changers  ready  to  change  a silver  dollar  giving  for  it 
five  twenty-cent  pieces,  one  ten-cent  piece  and  nine  copper  cents, 
the  copper  cents  themselves  full  of  significance  as  repre.seuting 
*i  minimum  medium  of  exchange  ten  times  more  than  the  old 
copper  cash  in  which  men  did  .their  thinking  ten  years  ago,  the 
■vendors  of  rich  and  fragrant  sweet  potatoes  boiled  before  one’s 
eyes,  boys  roasting  big  chestnuts  in  iron  filings  and  sugar,  turn- 
them  out  polished  and  sweetly  flavored,  a ragamuffin  procession 
of  lads  carrying  the  drunns,  gongs  and  standards  and  the  other 
paraphernalia  of  a funeral  procession  including  the  long  white 
paper  plumes  to  be  borne  ahead  to  lure  the  .spirit  of  the  depart- 
ed, the  big,  gaudy  equipment  for  a feast  or  a wedding  at  the 
other  end  of  human  experience,  the  auctioneers  in  the  shops 
'.selling  goods  not  to  uj)ward-bidding  customers  but  themselves 
naming  the  highest  j>rice  the  .shoj)  would  a.sk  and  then  bidding 
down  on  the  chance  that  sonie  man  might  want  the  goods,  enough 
to  buy  at  a higher  j)rice  than  another  would  be  waiting  for,  two 
bland  old  fortune-telling  fakirs  consulting  the  auguries  and  giv- 
ing advice  to  all  comers,  the  tradesmen  sitting  along  the  walls 
■making  anything  out  of  nothing,  the  blind  men  begging  along 
from  shop  to  shoj),  the  tea  leaves,  already  u.sed  once,  laid  out 
to  drj'  and  be  stee])ed  ovei‘  again,  the  donkey’s  working  in  the 
shops  in  the  little  rice  and  millet  mills,  two  old  men  peeling 
fresh  water  prawms  and  hour  after  hour  piling  up  the  half- 
gelatinous  mass,  groups  of  workmen  toiling  together  in  the  open- 
front  shops  where  they  toil  by  day  and  sleep  by  night,  with  the 
■women  of  their  families  in  the  home  villages  far  away,  meat  and 
■food  of  all  kinds  exposevl  and  gathering  germs  from  the  dust- 
laden air,  dirt  and  jmverty  and  dogs — “A  daughter,”  says'  a 
■Chinese  proverb,  “does  not  mind  the  homeliness  of  her  mother 
■nor  a dog  the  poverty  of  his  master,”  and  life,  life  that  fairly 
wriggle<l  and  seethed  in  the  one  ceaseless  struggle  not  for  wealth 
■nor  for  what  wealth  can  buy,  but  for  the  mere  means  of  material 
subsistence. 


399 


1 


In  the  drum  tower  section  of  the  East  Gate  Great  Street  and 
a vstone’s  throw  east  of  the  drum  tower  in  the  veiy  rnidsi;  of  the 
unending  interplay  of  these  forces  of  life  and  death,  stood  the 
church  that  we  were  seeking.  The  Independent  Christian  Church 
•of  Tientsin  has  its  home  here  in  a substantial  Chinese  brick 
■building  loaned  by  the  Congregational  Mission  but  renovated 
■and  maintained  by  the  church,  which,  without  presumption  but 
■with  earnest  and  co-operative  spirit,  carries  on  here  its  living 
work  as  the  one  ecclesiastically  and  financially  independent 
church  in  northern  China.  About  two  hundred  were  present  at 
■the  morning  service,  five  men  to  one  woman,  and  most  of  the 
men  were  young  and  belonging  obviously  either  to  the  student 
or  the  official  class.  The  church  is  without  a pa.stor  now,  its  last 
■minister  having  gone  to  America  to  study  in  Princ*eton  Theologi- 
■cal  Seminary.  One  of  the  elders  conducted  the  service,  a bright, 
■able  man,  a graduate  years  ago  of  Dr.  Calvin  Mateer’s  college 
■in  Tung  Chow,  now  the  Arts  Department  of  the  Shantung  Uni- 
■versity.  After  the  opening  hymns  and  prayer  he  read  part  of 
■the  fifth  chapter  of  Matthew,  and  then  the  visiting  preacher, 
■Pastor  Li  Pen  Yuan  of  the  Central  Congregational  Church  in 
■Peking,  preached  from  the  text  “Blessed  are  the  meek  for  they 
shall  inherit  the  earth.” 

We  could  not  understand  a word  that  was  said  but  we  knew 
that  Dr.  Walter  Lowrie  of  the  Presbyterian  missions  who  was 
with  us  and  to  whom  Chinese  was  his  mother  tongue,  would 
tell  us  all  about  it  afterwards  and  we  were  content  to  sit  on  the 
long  bench  against  the  whitewashed  wall  to  the  preacher’s  right 
and  meditate  on  all  that  that  scene  in  the  church  meant  against 
the  background  of  the  mass  without,  whose  heathen  hopeless- 
ness no  euphemism  can  cloak.  And  taught  by  the  living  experi- 
ence of  the  hour,  old  aspects  of  the  gospel  that  is  both  old  and 
■ever  new  shone  forth  with  fresh  significance.  On  the  wall  above 
■the  preacher  were  three  great  Chinese  characters  in  gold,  faith 
on  his  right  hand,  hope  on  his  left  hand,  and  between  the  two  in 
larger  outline  and  against  a background  of  red-like  crimson, 
stood  the  great  gold  character  for  love.  There  it  was,  the  one 
central  and  essential  thing,  the  only  thing  that  had  ever  redeem- 
ed any  man,  the  only  thing  that  can  redeem  China  today,  love  on 
a ground  work  of  sacrifice,  sheer  goodness  dipped  in  blood  and 
faithful  even  to  the  cross  of  death.  But  could  even  love  prevail 
in  the  huge,  sodden  mass  and  struggle  of  animal  living  which 
poured  like  a yellow  stream  through  the  East  Gate  Great  Street? 
■No,  but,  I told  myself,  the  gospel  was  not  love  unto  death  alone 
but  power  unto  resurrection  and  to  life,  and  where  on  earth  was 
there  more  unanswerable  testimony  to  the  reality  of  that  power 
than  here  in  China?  In  this  very  city  of  Tientsin,  in  Peking,  in 
a hundred  places  the  fiood  of  death  in  the  Boxer  uprising  had 
wiped  out  every  vestige  of  the  Church  of  Christ  and  now  on 
every  spot  where  the  fioods  of  death  had  passed  the  power  of 
life  had  worked  and  made  the  thing  that  had  been  and  was 

400 


not,  to  be  again  tenfold  stronger  than  it  was  before.  With  the 
power  of  the  resurrection  added  to  the  love  of  the  cross  how 
could  the  Christian  heart  dare  to  despair  or  to  set  up  a kinship 
with  paganism  which  is  “without  hope”?  And  I was  thinking 
on  from  love  to  power,  from  power  to  hope  and  from  hope  to 
peace,  looking  iip  now  and  then  at  the  great  gold  characters  on 
the  wall  or  at  the  colors  of  the  Chinese  flag  painted,  five  bars, 
along  the  rafters,  when  the  clock  on  the  wall  struck  twelve  and 
Pastor  Li  brought  his  earnest  message  to  a close. 

The  elder  who  was  conducting  the  service  called  then  on  the 
president  of  the  congregational  society  to  make  a report  with 
regard  to  a new  pastor  whom  the  church  had  called  and  the 
result  of  the  communication  of  the  call  to  him.  Upon  this  Mr. 
Chang  Bo  Ling  came  forward  to  make  the  desired  statement. 
To  any  caviler  at  Chinese  Christianity  the  speaker  and  his 
(Statement  would  have  been  an  adequate  reply.  Mr.  Chang  is 
head  of  one  of  the  best  schools  in  China  with  nearly  a thousand 
.students  sup'ported  by  the  Chinese  themselves  and  conducted  by 
him  as  a private  school  at  one-half  the  expense  of  government 
institutions  and  with  so  great  approval  from  the  government 
that  it  seems  ready  to  give  him  whatever  help  he  may  desire.  In 
conjunction  with  Mr.  Yen,  an  old  Confucianist  of  Peking,  Mr. 
Chang  founded  the  school  some  years  ago  before  he  was  a Chris- 
tian and  on  becoming  a Christian  resigned  the  headship  only 
to  be  called  back  to  it  when  those  who  tried  to  conduct  the 
school  in  his  stead  found  that  they  could  not  do  so.  Respected 
and  trusted  by  all  who  know  him,  one  of  the  great  forces  in  the 
life  of  the  citj^  and  in  Chinese  education,  and  a Christian  in 
every  impulse  of  his  heart  and  fibre  of  his  character,  he  and 
this  church  in  which  he  is  the  leader  are  proving  to  his  own 
people  that  Chri.stianity  is  a reality  and  the  reality  which  China 
needs  and  proving  also  to  the  whole  world  that  it  is  possible 
.to  build  in  China  Chri.stian  churches  that  are  not  subsidized 
and  dependent  but  native  and  free. 

Mr.  Chang  explained  that  the  man  they  had  called  had  made 
three  objections  to  coming.  (1)  He  was  a country  pastor,  a 
simple  man,  not  suited  to  the  life  of  the  city.  (2)  He  was  only 
a plain  preacher  of  the  gospel,  not  a lecturer  nor  an  essayist. 
(3)  He  was  only  a missionary  busj'  in  home  missionary  activi- 
ties, trying  to  spread  the  gospel  in  new  regions  among  the  coun- 
try’ people.  Mr.  Chang  added  that  he  had  never  seen  the  man 
but  had  heard  of  him  that  he  was  a man  of  truth  and  power 
whose  every  word  drove  home,  that  he  was  not  one  who  merely 
said,  but  what  he  said  he  did ; the  man  himself  was  a sermon. 
Moreover,  ]\Ir.  Chang  said,  the  man’s  objections  were  what  com- 
jnended  him  and  that  they  had  replied  to  him  that  they  did  not 
want  a lecturer  but  a preacher  of  Christ  who  would  not  describe 
the  world  to  them  but  would  open  to  their  hearts  the  heart  of 
God,  that  they  wanted  to  be  a missionary  church  and  to  have  a 
leadership  that  would  carrj'  them  all  out  in  the  joyous  ministry 

401 


of  winning  men.  They  were  a flock  who  wanted  to  be  fed  and 
who  were  eager  to  be  led.  The  new  xja.stor,  he  was  glad  to  say, 
had  promised  to  come,  the  arrangement  at  this  time  to  be  made 
for  one  year.  And  now  added  Mr.  Chang,  “We  must  start  in  at 
once.  Our  life  in  this  church  must  be  a life  of  revival,  of  bring- 
ing the  men  of  China  to  Chri.st  and  Christ  to  the  men  of  China.” 

The  service  over,  we  had  tea  together  in  the  session  room  be- 
hind the  church.  An  elder  plucked  .some  grapes  from  a vine 
and  brought  them  in  as  its  first  fruits,  and  another  of  the  men, 
who  has  brought  thirty  into  the  church  this  past  year  since  his 
own  conversion,  with  a happy  heart  declared  that  while  we  did 
not  have  wine  of  the  communion,  neverthele.ss  it  was  from  these 
grapes  that  such  wine  was  made  and  that  by  eating  these  to- 
gether we  might  comsider  this  a true  communion  in  the  body 
of  our  one  Lord. 

As  we  walked  away  Dr.  Lowrie  told  us  the  points  of  Pastor 
Li’s  sermon.  He  had  evidently  looked  up  the  word  “meek”  in 
his  commentaries  to  understand  it  righth'  and  he  had  set  before 
the  people  the  reasons  for  believing  that  the  meek  do  even  now 
po.ssess  all  things  and  have  that  trea.sure  which  is  more  than  all 
the  earth.  The  meek  man,  said  he,  has  peace  in  his  heart,  that 
is,  he  owns  hinnself,  the  very  assessor  of  all  things.  The  meek 
man  can  endure.  He  has  the  master}’  over  events  and  experi- 
ences. He  is  free  from  all  envy.  There  is  nothing  without 
which  he  is  unhappy.  Everything  is  already  his.  Meekness  is 
the  quality  which  lays  hold  on  other.s.  It  binds  them  to  him  who 
possesses  it.  And  thi.s,  said  he,  is  the  vital  thing,  namely  how 
much  things  and  people  lay  hold  on  me,  not  how  much  I lay  hold 
on  them.  The  essence  of  life,  he  thought,  was  openness  to  life 
such  as  the  disposition  of  meekness  gives  to  the  soul.  I sup- 
pose he  had  never  heard  of  Richard  Holt  Hutton  but  he  had 
almost  msed  his  verj’  words,  to  the  effect  that  what  is  of  conse- 
quence is  not  how  much  truth  a man  holds  but  how  much  truth 
holds  the  man.  Lastly,  said  Pastor  Li,  the  posse.ssion  of  meek- 
ness is  a pennanent  pos.session  that  cannot  be  taken  away.  He 
who  has  it  has  an  inheritance  of  enduring  tenure.  He  owns  the 
earth  and  more  than  the  earth. 

We  left  Tientsin  this  morning  and  all  day  long  have  been 
crossing  the  great  plains  of  Chihli  and  Shantung,  stretching  as 
far  as  the  eye  can  see,  with  every  square  foot  of  arable  land  in 
use  for  agriculture  or  consecrated  to  the  graves  of  the  dead.  And 
there  is  something  touching  and  noble  in  this  Chinese  reverence 
for  the  resting  places  of  the  generations  that  have  gone  and 
their  self-denying  surrender  to  them  of  great  tracts  of  their 
best  land,  which  they  sorely  need  in  their  close  and  pinching 
struggle  with  want.  Far  and  wide  acro.ss  the  fields  the  farmers 
are  busy  at  their  work,  grubbing  up  every  root  and  weed  for 
fuel  and,  with  the  wisdom  of  forty  centuries,  gathering  every 
last  blade  and  grain  of  productivity  from  the  soil.  Surely  these 
are  the  meek  of  the  earth,  if  they  could  but  be  led  into  their 

402 


inheritance.  Looking  out  upon  their  homely  industry  and  their 
simple  life  and  their  need  of  an  unselfish  and  competent  na- 
tional leadership,  the  memory  of  yesterday  morning’s  service 
goes  along  and  abides  with  us,  and  I think  of  the  words  of 
Christ  of  which  Pastor  Li  was  speaking  and  which  would  put 
the  spiritual  sweetness  into  their  weary  life,  and  of  .the  clean, 
golden  character  which  shone  in  Chang  Bo  Ling  as  he  revealed 
himself  in  every  word  that  he  was  saying  of  another  and  with- 
out which  China’s  leadership  today  is  a leadership  of  failure  and 
shame.  And  I hardly  know  which  of  two  moods  to  allow  to  pre- 
dominate, the  one  which  sings  over  quietly  to  itself  the  para- 
phrase of  the  13Lst  Psalm,  “Lord,  my  heart  is  not  haughty  nor 
my  eyes  lofty,  neither  do  I exercise  myself  in  great  matters 
nor  in  things  too  high  for  me,”  which  the  church  sang  yester- 
day morning  to  one  of  our  sweet  old  tunes  at  the  end  of  the  ser- 
yice,  or  the  mood  which  says,  “Yes,  the  spirit  of  meekness  but 
.also  the  spirit  of  might.  Here  is  this  great  China,  arise  now 
and  go  forth  to  it.  We  must  work  for  it  the  works  of  its  Savior 
while  yet  it  is  day,  for  the  night  cometh,  the  night  cometh.” 

R.  E.  S. 

(3)  PEKING  AND  TSINANFU 

S.  S.  “Sado  Maru,” 

Nov.  9,  1915. 

Within  the  same  week  we  have  visited  these  two  great  centers 
of  influence  in  northern  China,  one  the  capital  of  the  nation 
.and  the  other  the  capital  of  tlie  province  of  Shantung  with  a 
.population  between  a third  and  a lialf  of  the  population  of 
the  United  States  and  holding,  in  the  thought  of  all  Chinese, 
a place  of  singular  regard  as  alike  the  cradle  and  the  grave  of 
Confucius.  Each  city  has  become  also  a great  fountain  of  mis- 
sionary influence  and  a center  of  missionary  co-operation. 

Peking  is  certainly  one  of  the  most  wonderful  places  in  the 
world.  Its  immense  area,  its  ancient  and  ponderous  walls,  the 
my.sterj’  of  its  forbidden  city,  the  foreign  legations  settled  like 
armed  fortifications  in  its  very  heart,  its  temples  and  palaces, 
its  new  mnseuni  into  which  have  been  gathered  the  rich  art 
treasures  from  the  unplundered  i)alaces  at  .Jehol  and  Mukden, 
testifying  to  the  two  great  outbursts  of  arti.stic  genius  and  in- 
spiration which  have  characterized  Chine.se  histoiy,  the  lofty 
moral  dignity  of  the  altar  of  heaven  shut  in  from  any  view  of 
the  outward  world  and  lifting  nj)  its  white  marble  simplicity 
without  image  or  disfigurement  to  the  wide  heaven,  the  mix- 
ture of  cla.s.ses  and  races  of  peoi)le  from  the  Mongolian  deserts 
and  from  the  wann  provinces  from  the  south,  of  camels  and 
jionies  and  the  commonest  and  cheapest  of  all  beasts  of  burden, 
men,  the  new  life  struggling  with  the  old  life,  and  back  of  all 
the  cro.s.sing  and  counter-crossing  of  the  currents  of  political 
and  .social  change — these  and  much  else  make  the  capital  of 
China  today  one  of  the  most  interesting  places  in  the  world. 

Here  where  in  almost  evferj-  mission  compound  every  vestige 

403 


of  the  missionary  work  was  swept  away  in  the  storm  of  the 
Boxer  uprising,  the  work  is  re-establishe<l  now  on  broader  and 
more  solid  foundations  than  before.  Some  of  the  compounds  of 
other  denominations  enlarged  and  architecturally  reconstructefl 
are  remarkably  commodious  and  attractive.  Our  own  mi.ssion 
re-erected -its  buildings  on  the  same  two  compounds  which  it 
had  occupied  before,  enlarged  slightly  by  subsequent  purcha.ses. 
Outwardly  our  two  properties  pre.sent  a ver-y  modest  appear- 
ance. One  of  them,  indec^l,  and  the  larger  of  the  two,  cannot  Ije 
seen  at  all  from  an}'  main  street  but  is  approached  by  a small, 
though  not  unre.spectable  lane.  Once  within  the.se  compounds, 
however,  one’s  heart  is  rejoiced  to  see  the  strength  and  sweep 
of  the  work  that  is  being  done.  In  the  smaller  compound  near 
the  Drum  Tower  are  a handsome  church  and  a Bible  training 
.school,  generously  provided  for  by  gifts  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Morris 
K.  Jessup,  and  the  residence  of  Dr.  Fenn  in  charge  of  the  school 
with  associates  from  the  American  and  English  Congregation- 
Alist  missions,  stand  beside  the  ivy-covered  tower  which  is  all 
that  is  left  of  the  old  church  which  the  Boxers  destroved.  On 
the  larger  compound  lying  on  either  .side  of  the  little  lane  be- 
hind modest  gateways  lie  five  mi.ssion  residences,  the  women’s 
hospital.  Truth  Hall,  a school  for  boy.s,  with  its  handsome 
new  building  and  buildings  for  other  work. 

One  of  the  most  impressive  buildings  on  this  larger  compound 
is  the  church  in  whose  walls  are  set  two  tablets  containing  the 
names  of  two  hundred  members  of  the  church  who  were  loyal  to 
their  faith  and  laid  down  their  lives  in  the  Boxer  holocaust. 
And  the  spirit  which  animated  tho.se  Christians  has  not  depart- 
ed. At  an  afternoon  meeting  in  the  church  many  came  who  re- 
membei'ed  the  days  of  death  and  were  ready  now  as  they  had 
been  ready  then  to  .seal  their  testimony  by  any  sacrifice.  Our 
hearts  were  specially  drawn  toward  a Chine.se  gentleman  who 
was  present,  of  beautiful  face  and  evidently  of  as  beautiful 
spirit,  to  whom  we  Avere  introduced  afterwards  as  Admiral  Li, 
vice-minister  of  the  navy.  Not  long  since  it  was  required  of  all 
military  and  naval  ofiicials  that  they  should  take  a special  oath 
of  allegiance  and  it  was  specified  that  the  oath  should  be  taken 
in  a temple  before  the  god  of  war.  Admiral  Li,  as  a patriotic 
serAmnt  of  the  government,  was  entirely  ready  to  ^ake  the  oath, 
but  as  a Christian  man  he  refused  to  take  it  in  an  idol  temple 
before  a man-made  god.  There  was  at  first  some  anger  over  his 
refusal,  but  when  he  offered  to  go  instead  to  the  great  altar  of 
heaven  which  is  defaced  by  no  idolatry  and  to  stand  on  the 
lower  round  of  the  altar  and  take  the  oath  beneath  the  open 
sky.  President  Yuan  respected  his  firmne.ss.  allowed  him  to  pur- 
sue the  course  he  suggested  and  even  transferred  him  to  another 
post  in  the  government.  We  asked  Admiral  Li  for  a copy  of 
the  oath  which  he  had  taken  and  he  gave  us  the  following: 

‘‘The  oath  which  military  men  are  requested  to  take. 

“1)  Obedience  to  orders. 


404 


“2)  Absolute  loyalty  toward  the  country. 

“3)  Sincere  purpose  to  protect  the  people. 

“4)  Reverence  towards  superiors. 

“5  ) Not  sparing  of  one’s  self. 

“6)  In  word  and  conduct  truthful  and  reliable. 

“7)  Diligently  practicing  patience  and  fortitude. 

“8)  Not  entering  secret  societies  as  members. 

“I  willingly  take  oath  that  I will  obseiwe  these  eight  com- 
mands. He  who  breaks  one  will  incur  the  judgment  (Chinese 
word  used  means  to  kill  as  by  a stroke  of  lightning)  of  heaven 
and  the  reprimand  of  the  law. 

“Given  in  the  fourth  year  of  the  Chinese  Republic,  fifth  month 
and  second  day. 

“This  is  the  oath  of  Vice-minister  of  the  Navy  Li  Ho.” 

It  was  a joy  to  .see  such  a company  of  missionaries,  old  and 
new,  as  constitute  the  Peking  station.  Dr.  W.  A.  P.  Martin  the 
Nestor  of  missionaries  in  China  who  was  sent  out  by  the  Board 
to  China  in  1850  was  still  out  at  the  Western  Hills.  But  Dr. 
Walter  Lowrie  and  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Fenn  and  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Cun- 
ningham and  Miss  Newton  and  Miss  McKillican  and  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  toiler  and  Dr.  Leonard,  all  of  whom  have  been  on  the  field 
more  tlian  twentj’  years,  were  there,  and  a large  company  of 
younger  missionaries  as  full  of  promise  in  their  ability  and  de- 
yotion  as  any  company  of  younger  missionaries  that  we  have 
.seen.  We  greatly  missed  Dr.  Wherry,  next  in  seniority  to  Dr. 
Martin,  who  lias  been  over  fifty  years  on  the  field  and  is  away 
from  liis  station  now  serving  on  one  of  the  committees  of  Bible 
revision,  and  also  within  a fortnight  after  leaving  the  station 
the  news  of  ^liss  Newton’s  deatli  followed  us. 

Peking  and  Tsinanfu  alike,  as  has  been  said,  are  great  centers 
of  eo-oiierative  mis.sionary  work.  In  Peking  there  are  the  be- 
ginnings of  a union  Christian  university,  an  already  established 
union  medical  college  now  being  taken  over  by  the  China  Medical 
Board  of  the  Rockefeller  Foundation,  a union  theological  sem- 
inary, a union  women’s  college  and  union  Bible  training  school 
lor  men  and  women,  an  eHicient  Young  ]Men’s  Christian  Asso- 
ciation staffed  by  Princeton  Fniversity  and  a growing  union 
church  for  Fnglish-.speaking  jieople  of  which  Dr.  Charles  F. 
Hubbard  is  the  pastor. 

In  Tsinanfu  we  had  the  joy  of  seeing  the  .strong  foundations 
on  which  the  union  higher  Christian  education  of  the  province  is 
to  rest.  A railroail  wreck  deprived  us  of  the  privilege  of  seeing 
the  dedication  of  the  beautiful  new  ho.spital  and  dispensarj’ 
buildings  erected  by  the  Fnglish  Baptists  for  the  use  of  the 
Union  Me^lical  College.  Both  the  civil  and  rnilitaiw  governors 
of  the  ju'ovince  were  pre.sent  at  the  de<lication  and  the  British 
Consul  made  the  dedicatory  address.  Just  south  of  the  new 
,hosj)ital  over  the  wall  of  the  city  which  we  climbed  with  ladders 
but  through  which  a new  gate  will  doubtless  be  cut,  lies  the 
beautiful  new  site  of  the  Arts  College  soon  to  be  removed  thither 
from  Weihsien.  Some  of  the  buildings  are  already  under  erec- 

405 


tion,  of  gray  brick  or  stone.  The  Chine.se  staff  of  the  college  is 
delighted  with  the  plan  of  a mwlel  Chinese  village  which  will 
house  them  and  their  families  and  serwe  as  an  object  lesson  to 
the  counti*}"  round  about.  Just  beside  the  medical  college  is  the 
Institute,  developed  by  the  genius  of  Dr.  Whitewright  of  the 
English  Baptist  Mi.ssion,  which  is  now  incorporated  in  the  uni- 
versity scheme  and  which  is  the  most  effective  piece  of  university 
extension  work  which  can  be  found  in  Asia,  if  not  in  the  world. 
The  In.stitute  in  its  attractive,  wide-reaching  buildings  of  adapt- 
ed Chine.se  architecture  is  an  educational  agency  of  almost  un- 
efpialled  power  among  the  masses.  An  average  of  over  a thou- 
.sand  people  a day  pass  through  it  drinking  in  new  knowledge 
through  their  eyes  and  listening  in  the  lecture  rooms  to  the 
frequent  discus.sions  of  the  great  questions  which  concern  human 
life  in  China  and  especially  to  the  ceaseless  presentation  of 
Chri.st  as  China’s  one  hope. 

It  is  difficult  for  us  with  the  conceptions  of  parish  boundaries 
and  re.sponsibilities  to  which  we  are  accustomed  at  home  and  in 
some  other  mission  fields  abroad  to  conceive  adequately  of  the 
need  and  opportunity  of  such  an  empire  of  human  life  as  we  have 
to  deal  with  in  Shantung.  Here  are  mis.sion  stations  with  sur- 
rounding populations  of  from  four  to  six  millions  to  each  station. 
There  are  scores  of  cities  open  for  occupation  where  no  mission- 
aries reside  or,  with  our  present  resources,  can  be  placed.  The 
Shantung  mission  is  eager  to  occupy  centers  like  these  by  lo- 
cating in  them,  not  foreign  missionaries,  but  some  of  the  be.st 
of  the  young  Christian  leaders  who  have  been  developed  among 
the  Chinese.  Five  thousand  dollars  will  provide  the  equipment 
for  each  of  the.se  centers  in  the  purcha.se  of  one  of  the  old  pawn 
shop  buildings  now  on  the  market,  solidly  built  of  brick  and 
easily  transformed  into  a center  of  institutional  church  work. 
Five  hundred  dollars  a year  for  a few  years  will  provide  the 
maintenance  and  thereafter  it  is  hoped  that  the  work  will  be 
.self-supporting.  It  is  as  clear  a need  and  as  appealing  an  op- 
portunity as  I know  any\\’here. 

In  addition  to  the  union  work  we  have  our  own  extensive  ac- 
tivity in  Tsinanfu,  men’s  and  women’s  hospitals  ministering  verj' 
directly  to  the  need  of  the  people  and  especially  to  the  country 
work,  admirable  boarding  schools  both  for  boys  and  girls,  and 
far-reaching  country  itinerating  work.  In  Tsinanfu  the  different 
churches  have  unite^l  in  one  strong  organization  which  is  self- 
.supporting  and  carrying  on  mission  work  of  its  own  at  various 
points  in  the  city.  North  to  Peking,  south  to  Nanking  and  east 
to  Tsiug-tau,  the  railroads  now  run  from  Tsinanfu.  In  time 
they  will  run  west  also.  Along  all  these  arteries  the  streams 
of  thought  move  more  freely  than  the  streams  of  trade  and  over 
thousands  of  rivulets  of  Chinese  roads  and  pathways,  also,  dis- 
tant from  all  railroads  and  creeping  back  deeper  and  deeper 
into  the  huge  body  of  the  life  of  China  the  gosi>el  is  pressing  its 
way,  unseen  of  the  world,  but  to  appear,  surely  to  appear  again. 

R.  E.  S. 


406 


' (4)  THE  THREE  STATIONS  OP  KIANG  AN 

S.  S.  “Sado  Maru 
Nov.  9,  1915. 

There  is  no  such  place  as  Kiang  An  and  yet  the  three  stations 
of  Nanhsuchow,  Hwaiyuen  and  Nanking  make  up  our  Kiang  An 
mission.  The  name  is  a hybrid,  composed  of  the  first  syllables 
of  the  names  of  the  two  provinces  in  which  these  three  stations 
lie.  Nanhsuchow  and  Hwaiyuen  are  in  the  province  of  Anhwei 
lying  ju.st  inland  in  central  China  behind  the  coast  belt  of  prov- 
inces, and  Nanking  is  on  the  very  western  edge  of  the  coast  prov- 
ince of  Kiangsu  in  who.se  -southeastern  comer  lie  the  stations 
of  Soochow  and  Shanghai.  The  three  stations  are  naturally  re- 
lated by  language  and  other  bonds  and  it  was  out  of  the  work 
at  Nanking  that  Hwaimen  developed  and  Nanhsuchow,  in  due 
time,  out  of  Hwaiyuen. 

We  came  down  into  the  mission  from  Shantung,  leaving  the 
handsome  railway  station  at  Tsinanfu,  that  would  do  credit  to 
an  American  city,  in  the  evening.  It  was  after  midnight  when 
we  went  by  the  Sacred  Mountain  and  the  resting  place  of  Con- 
fucius. It  was  full  moon  and  tlie  soft  light  lay  gentle  and  still 
upon  file  shrine  which  marks  the  resting  place  of  one  under 
whose  influence  for  twenty-five  hundred  years  China  has  Avalked 
in  moonlight. 

In  tlie  morning  the  moonlight  and  the  Sacred  Mountain  alike 
had  faded  away  behind  us  and  amid  the  realities  of  the  day 
the  Chinese  farmers  were  at  work  on  the  wide  plains  east  and 
we.st  gathering  in  tlieir  harvests.  It  has  been  a good  year  with 
neitlier  drought  nor  flood  nor  war,  and  the  people  greet  the  com- 
ing winter  with  a better  heart.  For  miles  and  miles  our  rail- 
road ran  through  the  very  region  where  the  horrors  of  famine 
were  Avorst  only  four  years  ago,  not  from  drought  but  from  the 
oA'ei’fiow  of  the  HAvai  Fiver  which  covered  all  the  country,  as 
far  as  tlie  eye  could  reach  from  the  railroad  embankment,  un- 
der deep  waters  that  destroyed  alike  the  crops  and  the  cattle 
and  the  homes  of  the  people  and  filled  the  land  Avith  hunger 
and  pillage. 

All  was  brightness  and  peace  on  the  October  morning  that  we 
reacheil  NanhsuchoAV  and  walked  with  the  happy  little  group 
of  missionaries  through  the  streets  of  their  squalid  city.  It 
had  not  giv'en  them  a squalid  AA'elcome  hoAvever.  Few  if  any 
mission  stations  have  been  opened  in  China  with  more  expres- 
sions of  hospitality  and  good  will  on  the  part  of  the  people.  The 
boy’s  school  Avas  meeting  in  a Buddhist  temple  which  had  been 
placed  at  the  disposal  of  the  missionaries.  A passage  on  one 
s-ide  of  the  temple  was  .set  off  by  mats  to  alloAV  the  Buddhist 
priests,  who  still  lived  behind,  free  egre.ss,  but  the  gods  had 
been  for.saken  and  the  missionaries  had  been  allowed  to  cover 
them  with  a paper  screen  leaving  only  a little  hole  in  it  to  spare 
the  idols’  pride  and  save  them  from  a too  abject  humiliation. 

. 407 


The  girls’  school  was  meeting  in  a better  class  Chinese  home 
rented  by  the  gentry  for  the  use  of  the  station  and  a little  com- 
mittee of  the  gentry  stood  behind  the  schools  to  help  in  case 
any  difficulties  should  arise.  To  fit  themselves  into  all  this 
welcoming  environment  the  more  securely,  Mr.  Carter  and  Mr. 
Hood  have  built  simple  though  healthful  and  appropriate  homes 
of  one  story  which  are  models  in  hygiene  and  in  taste  of  what 
such  simple  homes  can  be,  and  they  rejoice  in  counting  among 
their  Chinese  as.sociate  workers  those  whom  they  can  absolutely 
trust.  We  were  delighted  to  meet  the  family  of  whom  they 
wrote  in  their  report  a year  ago  from  whose  home  each  evening 
they  heard  the  hymns  and  evening  prav^ers  which  made  the  house- 
hold a “perfect  commentary  on  ‘The  Cotter’s  Saturday  Night,’  ” 
although  alas  of  the  four  little  voices  that  joined  in  the  .songs 
a year  ago,  there  are  but  three  now.  As  to  the  fourth — 
“Around  the  throne  of  God  in  heaven  thousands  of  children 
stand.” 

From  Nanhsuchow  the  railroad  runs  south  to  Pengpu  on  the 
Hwai  Fiver  and  there  the  launch  which  good  friends  at  home 
had  given  the  Hwaiyuen  station  had  come  down  to  meet  us  and 
took  us  back  through  the  night,  with  the  moonlight  shining  on 
the  brown  waters  and  the  brown  plains,  to  the  junction  of  the 
Hwai  and  the  Go  Rivers.  The  station  stood  on  the  westerly 
.slope  of  the  East  Mountain  looking  acro.ss  to  the  heights  of  the 
West  Mountain  from  which  the  Chinese  Noah  ages  ago  had 
cleft  it  asunder  that  the  Hwai  River  might  be  let  through. 

The  Nanhsuchow  and  Hwaiyune  stations  are  .supported  by 
two  churches  in  New  York  City  on  Madison  avenue,  the  Madison 
Avenue  and  the  Central  Prasbyterian  churches  of  which  Dr. 
Coffin  and  Dr.  Merle-Smith  are  pastors,  and  if  there  are  two 
churches  on  earth  which  should  be  proud  and  happy  in  their 
missionary'  relationships  they  are  these  two  churches.  From 
the  ideal  little  group  in  Nanhsuchow  we  came  to  the  equally 
ideal  but  much  larger  group  in  the  older  station  of  Hwaiyuen. 
It  was  beaiitiful  to  feel  the  love  and  family  unity  which  bound 
the  station  together  and  to  see  the  warmth  of  sympathy  and 
affection  between  the  missionaries  and  the  Chinese,  to  go  over 
the  well-nigh  perfect  property  equipment  of  the  station,  and  to 
examine  the  buildings  and  the  grounds  built  and  laid  out  with 
such  faultless  taste,  embodying,  within,  all  necessary  conveni- 
ences and  preserving,  without,  the  best  lines  and  features  of 
Chinese  architecture.  The  one  lacking  building,  a hospital  for 
women,  has  already  been  provided  by  the  generosity  of  Dr. 
Cragin  and  the  materials  were  gathering  for  its  construction. 

From  the  top  of  Ea.st  Mountain  just  back  of  the  mission  build- 
ings we  looked  out  north,  east,  soiith,  and  west  over  the  wide 
extended  field  of  the  station,  three  hundred  miles  long  and  a 
hundred  miles  broad  with  a population  of  five  million  people. 
In  this  district  there  are  twelve  foreign,  and  thirty-six  Chinese 
workers  having  charge  of  the  evangelistic,  medical  and  educa- 

408 


tional  work  making  an  average  of  one  worker  to  113,000  people. 
“This,”  the  station  reminded  us,  “is  a population  closely  ap- 
proximating that  of  the  city  of  New  Haven,  Conn.  Imagine,  if 
you  can,  the  whole  city  of  New  Haven  living  under  heathen 
conditions  and  one  man,  one,  facing  it  as  his  problem  to  heal, 
to  educate,  and  to  bring  to  a knowledge  of  God.” 

On  leaving  Hwaiyuen  we  went  on  southward  again  to  the 
parent  station  of  the  mission  at  Nanking.  It  was  quite  clear 
that  we  were  passing  out  of  one  set  of  conditions  into  another. 
The  air  grew  balmier,  the  fields  were  covered  not  with  wheat  or 
millet  but  with  rice,  the  water  buffalo,  the  great  warm  country 
beast  of  toil  in  eastern  Asia,  came  back  into  the  landscape,  and 
the  sun  was  setting  far  up  the  Yangste  behind  the  hills  beyond 
the  plains  as  we  crossed  the  great  river  by  ferry  from  Pukow  to 
Nanking,  with  such  thoughts  as  the  old  Chinese  poem  recoils  : 
“Rare  old  city,  home  of  kings ; 

The  glory  of  the  past  sits  on  thee  like  a crown. 

What  if  thy  present  be  but  days  of  gloom, 

A dragon  sleeps  beneath  thee,  and  a Tao  and  Shun 
Shall  in  the  future  ages  coming  down 
Make  thee  again  the  great  Nanking.” 

We  have  known  that  this  Yao  or  Shun  who  should  come  to 
recreate  Nanking  had  been  given  a very  considerable  task  by 
those  who  had  well-nigh  ruined  the  city  in  the  revolution  which 
set  up  the  Eepublic  and  in  the  madness  of  the  second  revolution 
that  followed  it,  but  we  had  not  realized  until  we  saw  the  city 
what  dreadful  havoc  had  been  wrought  in  the  destruction  of 
property  and  trade  and  the  driving  away  of  wealthy  and  influ- 
ential families.  Even  yet  they  are  afraid  to  return  because  of 
uncertainty  as  to  the  future.  Once  security  is  established,  how- 
ever, Nanking  must  certainly  recover  its  former  glory  and  ex 
ceed  it,  as  one  of  the  great  motive  centers  of  China. 

Sooner  or  later  the  forces  of  outward  repair  will  begin  to 
work  ill  Nanking  and  meanwhile  the  spiritual  forces  are  not 
waiting.  One  wonders  whether  there  can  be  anywhere  else  in 
the  world  a city  where  the  mission  agencies  have  drawm  together 
ill  as  many  efficient  and  hopeful  missionary  undertakings  as  in 
Nanking.  Foremost  among  these  is  the  University  in  which  the 
Hethodists,  Pre.sbyterians,  Chri.stians,  and  Northern  Baptists  are 
working  together,  with  the  southern  churches,  Methodist,  Pres- 
byterian and  Baptists,  co-operating  al.so  in  the  medical  school  of 
the  University.  The  University  has  a noble  site  on  the  slope 
near  the  Drum  Tower  looking  out  over  the  city  and  far  away 
to  Purple  Mountain  beyond  its  walls  where  the  agricultural  de- 
partment of  the  Universit}’  is  redeeming  waste  land,  providing 
homes  for  the  homeless  and  winning  the  confidence  and  good 
will  of  the  officials  to  .such  an  extent  that  the  national  govern- 
ment in  Peking  has  clo.seil  its  forestry’  school  there  and  sent  its 
students  to  the  Nanking  University  for  in.struction  supported  by 
the  government.  Next  there  is  the  Gin  Ling  college  for  women, 
the  only  women’s  college  in  the  Yangste  valley,  which  has  just 

409 


opened  its  sessions  with  eleven  students  in  a magnificent  old 
Chinese  mansion  with  endless  rooms  and  a great  garden,  rented 
at  about  twenty  dollars  gold  a month.  In  addition  to  these  in- 
stitutions there  are  a union  theological  .seminar}’  and  Bible 
school,  union  Bible  schools  for  training  Bible  women  and  women 
evangelists,  a union  scIkkjI  for  training  nurses. 

In  addition  to  sharing  in  all  this  union  work  our  own  mis- 
sion has  half  a dozen  centers  of  evaugeli.stic  and  institutional 
work,  many  of  them  admirably  e<iuippe<l,  in  the  city  and  a dozen 
points  in  the  country.  And  both  in  city  and  countr}',  among 
men  and  woman,  among  old  people  and  children,  the  field  is 
white  to  the  harvest.  As  Miss  Leaman  said  in  reporting  six- 
teen weeks  of  country  work:  “It  is  a day  of  open  doors.  Almost 
constantly  the  women  came  with  their  burdens.  One  woman  said 
to  her  friend,  ‘Stay  here  and  li.sten  while  I go  home  to  cook  the 
rice;  it  will  help  you  to  bear  your  sorrow.’  Another  told  me,  ‘I 
am  over  fifty,  my  children  are  grown  and  I am  just  looking  for 
a road  to  walk.’  (Some  hope  for  the  future.)  ‘I  would  never 
have  known  if  you  had  not  told  me.’  ‘Do  send  us  a teacher.’ 
‘Do  open  a .school.’  These  we  heard  every  day.  One  woman  said, 
‘My  troubles  all  scatter  when  I come  here.’  And  another,  ‘I  am 
stupid,  I can’t  pray  but  I san  say — thank  you.  Heavenly  Father.’ 
In  former  years  in  these  places  Mrs.  Abbey,  Miss  Dres.ser  and 
Miss  Hyde  had  met  with  suspicion,  had  been  called  hard  names, 
and  even  had  had  stones  thrown  at  them.  But  .something  very 
wonderful  has  been  at  work — -for  that  is  all  changed.” 

The  public  life  of  China  may  not  be  as  spectacularly  interest- 
ing to  westera  nations  as  it  was  at  the  time  of  the  republican 
revolution,  but  the  accessibility  of  the  common  mind  of  China 
is  greater  now  than  it  has  ever  been.  Never  was  there  a wider 
door  of  opportunity  open  to  the  Christian  Church.  Is  it  possible 
that  the  enlargement  of  our  opportunity  shall  not  find  the  church 
ready  with  enlarged  obedience  to  enter  in? 

R.  E.  S. 

(5)  THE  OLD  THAT  IS  STILL  NEW 

S.  S.  “Sado  Maru,” 

Nov.  9,  1915. 

The  oldest  mission  work  of  our  church  in  China  is  in  the  sta- 
tions of  what  is  called  the  Central  China  Mission.  Here  in  1845 
our  missionaries  settled  in  the  city  of  Ningpo  as  soon  as  it  was 
opened  as  one  of  the  first  treaty  ports  after  the  Opium  War. 
The  same  year  work  was  begun  in  Canton  but  our  other  stations 
in  south  China  have  all  been  established  since  1890,  while  Ningpo 
in  central  China  was  followed  by  the  occupation  of  Shanghai 
in  1850  and  of  Hangchow  in  1859,  all  these  stations  preceding 
the  establishment  of  Teng-Chou  and  Chefoo  in  Shantung  in  1861 
and  1862  and  Peking  in  1863.  But  what  was  oldest  is  as  full  of 
energy  and  vitality  as  what  is  youngest  as  we  have  seen  vdth 
joy  as  we  visited  Ningpo,  Hangchow,  Shanghai  and  Soochow,  the 
four  stations  which  now  constitute  the  mission. 

410 


.Coming  from  Nanking  by  rail  after  a four  or  five  hours’  ride 
across  the  water  rice  fields,  with  the  sails  of  the  boats  on  the 
Yangste  Eiver  now  and  then  in  sight  in  the  distance,  one  comes 
first  to  the  station  of  Soochow.  Its  crowded  streets  and  thriv- 
ing industry  and  prosperous  shops  and  dwelling  houses,  watched 
over  by  the  two  beautiful  old  pagodas,  one  ten  and  the  other 
thirteen  centuries  old,  at  opposite  ends  of  the  city,  were  a great 
refreshment  after  the  wreckage  of  Nanking  and  reminded  one 
of  the  huge,  seething  life  of  Canton.  On  one  of  the  corners  in 
the  very  heart  of  the  business  and  movement  of  the  city  Mr. 
Crawford  had  one  of  the  station  chapels.  Every  night  in  the 
week  that  it  was  opened  it  was  packed  to  the  doors  with  men 
overfio'ndng  into  the  reading  rooms  on  the  second  floor  and 
actual  results  wei*e  being  gathered  in  to  the  chapel  in  constant 
accessions  to  the  church.  In  the  compounds  of  the  station,  in 
the  thickly  populated  suburb  outside  the  walls,  were  the  Tooker 
Memorial  Hospital  for  Avomen  and  the  boys’  school  and  the  resi- 
dences, surrounding  .several  fine  old  gnild  halls.  To  those  of  us 
who  could  remember  the  day  when  there  was  di.scussion  as  to 
whether  it  was  not  expedient  to  give  np  the  work  in  Soochow, 
its  present  pro.sperity  and  promise  brought  a deep  lesson.  Thank 
God  it  is  not  the  way  of  the  mi.ssionarj'  enterprise  to  let  go 
where  it  has  once  taken  hold,  nntil  its  work  is  done. 

From  Soocliow  we  went  on  by  rail  a two  hoi;rs’  journey,  in- 
stead of  the  two  days’  boat  trip  of  earlier  times  to  Shanghai, 
ju.st  catching  the  evening  boat  across  llie  bay  where  Walter  M. 
Lowrie  met  his  death  at  the  hands  of  pirates  in  the  early  days, 
to  NingiM).  One  of  the  rules  j)Osted  in  the  saloon  of  the  steamer 
suggested  the  not  infr(H]uent  ways  of  foreigners  with  Chinese, 
“If  the  .saloon  boys  shall  do  anything  to  offend  llie  pas.senger,”  it 
.said,  “the  passenger  shall  not  punish  liini  bnt  inform  the  Cap- 
tain of  the  same.”  All  the  freight  was  carried  on  the  boat  at 
Shanghai  and  off  of  it  at  Ningjto  without  a ti-uck  and  without  a 
crane,  by  Chinese  hand  labor, — men  picking  up  the  heaviest  bales 
or  boxes  on  their  own  backs  or  carrying  them  on  bamboo  poles. 
For  this  kind  of  lalmr  surely  the  Chinaman  can  surpass  any 
other  kind  of  workman  in  the  Avorld.  In  Ningpo  city  across  the 
river  from  the  old  walled  section,  the  station  has  its  two  good 
schools  for  boys  and  girls  with  their  long  and  fruitful  history 
and  its  various  classes  for  women.  One  church  is  in  this  center 
and  another  in  the  heart  of  the  walletl  city,  and  many  more  are 
scatterc*d  throughout  the  countiT  and  visited  either  from  Ningpo 
or  from  Yu  Yao  where  Mr.  Shoemaker  and  Mrs.  Shoemaker  and 
Miss  IJollestone  have  oi)ened  a sub-station  with  a most  interest- 
ing hosj)ital  in  charge  of  a Chinese  Christian  doctor  trained  by 
Dr.  ^>nable  of  the  Southern  I’resbyterian  ^Iis.sion  at  Kashiug. 
Good  lives  seem  to  leave  an  inunortal  fragrance  behind  them  and 
the  Ningi)o  Christians  cheri.sh  brightly  the  memory’  of  Nevius 
ami  McCar1(v  and  the.  whole  company  of  men  and  women  who  in 
earlier  years  servtsl  Christ  and  His  Church  in  Ningpo  and  have 
now  passed  on  to  their  reward. 

411 


From  Ningpo  formerly  one  would  have  cros,se<l  by  river  and 
boat  to  Hangchow  and  needed  four  days  for  the  journey.  Now 
a night’s  ride  takes  one  back  to  Shanghai  and  it  is  five  hours 
by  rail  from  Shanghai  to  Hangchow.  In  prosperity  and  industry 
and  the  affection  of  the  people,  Hangchow  and  Soochow  are  twin 
cities,  “Above  is  heaven,”  runs  the  common  saying,  “and  below 
are  Hangchow  and  Soocliow.”  Hangchow  with  its  lake  and  sur- 
rounding mountains  and  wide  river,  its  temple  hill  in  the  middle 
of  the  city  and  its  guardian  pagodas  on  the  mountains  looking 
down,  is  far  the  more  beautiful  city  and  the  capable,  upright 
and  public-spirited  governor  of  the  province.  General  Chu,  has 
done  a great  deal  to  improve  the  place  and  to  encourage  the  in- 
fluences which  are  working  upon  its  inner  life.  Mr.  Bible  took 
us  at  once  to  a new  chapel  and  institutional  center  opened  in 
the  center  of  the  city  which  demonstrates,  as  the  chapel  in  Soo- 
chow does,  that  the  days  of  street  chapel  preaching  are  not  over, 
that  the  work  is  more  effective  than  ever,  if  done  in  the  right 
way.  Now,  by  having  the  chapels  in  the  business  sections  of 
the  city  where  the  Chinese  live  in  their  shops,  and  opening  them 
at  night,  there  are  thronged  congregations  of  the  very  tj-pe  of 
men  out  of  whom  independent  and  self-supporting  churches  mu.st 
be  made.  In  what  was  the  old  decadent  Manchu  .section  of  the 
city,  now  opened  up  by  Governor  Chu,  with  wide  .streets  and  a 
marginal  park  along  the  lake,  the  union  girls’  school  of  the 
Northern  Baptists  and  the  Northern  and  Southern  Presbyter- 
ians has  acquired  a fine  five-acre  plot  and  is  erecting  its  new 
building  for  grammar  and  high  .schools.  Five  miles  away,  just 
over  a little  range  of  hills  and  on  a magnificent  site  looking  out 
over  the  river  and  the  far-reaching  hills  and  plains,  the  new 
buildings  of  the  Hangchow  College  supported  by  the  Southern 
Presbyterians  and  ourselves  have  been  erected.  This  is  the  only 
college  in  the  entire  Chekiang  province,  with  its  population  of 
twelve  or  fifteen  million.  It  is  calling  for  several  strong  men 
for  its  faculty  at  once,  one  to  teach  history  and  economics  and 
another  to  teach  chemistry,  but  both  to  have  as  their  chief  con- 
cern the  making  of  Christian  men.  How  can  men  be  found,  who 
will  turn  to  opportunities  like  these,  for  which  it  is  so  hard  to 
find  men,  instead  of  mingling  in  the  overcrowded  competition 
for  places  at  home? 

Shanghai  is  surely  one  of  the  most  anomalous  cities  on  earth, 
— a foreign  governed  city  whose  population  is  nevertheless  chiefly 
Chinese,  set  right  down  on  the  soil  of  China.  What  could  bo 
more  pathetic  than  to  see  thousands  of  the  very  men  who  ought 
to  be  the  leaders  iu  their  ovm  home  communities,  settling  in- 
stead in  Shanghai  to  live  on  their  own  soil  under  foreign  flags, 
preferring  this  kind  of  expatriation  to  the  risks  of  living  and 
doing  their  work  in  the  communities  where  they  belong.  Of 
course  there  are  many  who  take  refuge  in  a place  like  the  Shang- 
hai foreign  settlement  vdth  unworthy  motives,  but  there  are 
hundreds  more  who  have  come  simply  to  enjoy  the  order  and 

412 


protection  and  justice  which  they  have  not  been  able  to  secure 
under  their  own  government.  The  great  mass  of  the  Chinese 
living  in  Shanghai,  in  their  own  country  and  yet  out  of  it,  are 
drawn  there  by  the  enormous  and  ever-growing  business  of  this 
gateway  and  distributing  post  of  the  nation.  Side  by  side  with 
the  foreign  city',  the  old  native  city  continxied  its  walled-off,  iso- 
lated life  till  within  the  last  year.  Now  the  old  wall  is  down, 
a wide  boulevard  is  being  built  where  it  stood,  the  stream  of 
modem  influence  is  pressing  in.  Far  deeper  changes  are  taking 
place  than  were  represented  in  the  change  of  government  four 
years  ago. 

Such  a maelstrom  of  race  and  civilization  and  society  as  Shang- 
hai pre.«:ents  is  no  easy  center  of  missionarv'  work  and  the  large 
part  of  the  missionary  activity  of  the  city  has  relation  not  at  all 
to  Shanghai,  but  to  the  widespread  enterprises  of  missions 
throughout  the  interior  provinces.  Our  own  mission  is  one  of 
those  which,  doing  its  share,  and  perhaps  more  than  its  share, 
of  the  general  national  missionary'  service  which  merely  finds  its 
headquarters  in  Shanghai,  is  also  dealing  earnestly'  with  the 
conditions  Avhicli  Shanghai  itself  presents.  Three  self-support- 
ing churches  have  grown  up  in  the  city  out  of  the  work  of  the 
station  and  in  addition  to  the  mission  press,  with  its  two  estab- 
li.shments,  we  Iiave  at  the  South  Gate  the  headquarters  of  an 
educational  and  evangelistic  work  which  has  steadily'  refused 
to  withdraw  to  pleasanter  places,  away  from  human  need  deep- 
touched  with  misery'.  Here  at  the  South  Gate  by'  open  streams 
that  are  not  quite  as  noxious  as  they  used  to  be,  but  which  are 
still  .sufliciently'  forbidding,  a little  steadfast  company  of  mis- 
sionaries carry  on  the  girls’  and  boy's’  boarding  scliools,  the  lat- 
ter of  which  owes  its  best  building  and  much  of  its  support  to  its 
graduates,  now  .successful  Christian  business  men,  a Bible 
women’s  training  school,  a continuous  itinerating  work  in  the 
countiw,  and  evangelistic  work  by  chapels  and  an  institutional 
church  soon  to  be  re-established  in  new  quarters,  in  memory  of 
Mrs.  Xevius,  among  the  thick  populations  for  whom  practically 
nothing  else  is  being  done  in  all  this  section  of  the  old  city. 

For  two  generations  the  missionaries  have  done  their  work  in 
these  four  great  cities  and  the  cities  have  not  been  evangelized. 
Shall  two  more  generations  pa.ss  and  the  task  be  still  undone? 
Or  shall  one  snllice?  One  will  be  enough  for  God  if  we  will  make 
Him  our  sole  sufficiency'. 

R.  E.  S. 


413 


2.  THE  GENEKAL  ENVIRONMENT  OF  MISSIONS  IN 
CHINA  AT  THE  PRESENT  TIME 

Our  first  contacts  with  China  at  Canton  on  our  way  out  to 
Siam  in  the  spi’ing.  and  at  Mukden  when  we  returned  to  China 
for  a month  in  tlie  fall,  were  depressing  with  regard  to  the  gen- 
eral political  and  social  conditions  of  the  country.  Most  em- 
phatically they  were  not  depressing  with  regard  to  the  mission- 
ary enterprise  and  the  accessibility  and  responsiveness  of  the 
people,  especially  of  the  student  class,  to  the  mes.sage  of  Chris- 
tianity. But  in  the  spring  the  disappearance  of  each  vestige 
of  Republican  government  with  the  single  exception  of  the  presi- 
dential title,  the  uncertainty  of  the  political  future,  the  uneasy 
consciousness  of  subtle  forces  at  work  that  it  was  difiBcult  to 
understand  and  that  were  producing  social  and  economic  changes 
which  could  not  be  controlled,  the  difficulties  of  adjusting  the 
products  of  westeni  e<lucation  to  the  existing  social  order,  the 
unrest  which  the  great  war  is  producing  among  all  established 
things,  and  in  the  autumn  these  consideration.s,  intensified  and 
supplementefl  by  the  monarchical  agitation,  were  pressing  upon 
the  minds  of  the  young  men  of  China  and  throwing  a shadow 
across  their  hopes.  In  some  measure,  perhaps  not  great,  this 
depre.ssion  was  reaching  down  to  the  masses  of  the  people.  But 
among  these  masses  in  China  there  is  always  depression,  fought 
off  and  lighted  up  by  the  manly,  cheerful  spirit  of  this  great 
people,  but  always  there  as  a tragic  background  of  their  life. 
“Perhaps,”  as  some  of  them  said  in  Canton,  as  they  .spoke  of  the 
ceaseless  struggle  with  life  on  the  edge  of  want,  “perhaps,  there 
are  too  many  of  us  and  it  would  be  better  if  some  would  die.” 
No  one  could  be  in  China  today  I think  with  a sympathetic  mind 
without  feeling  this  sense  of  depression  and  being  made  aware 
of  the  check  which  had  been  given  to  the  buoyant  enthusiasm 
of  the  nation  in  the  first  days  of  the  Republic.  Certainly  we 
felt  these  things  as  we  came  into  China  from  the  thrill  of  joyous 
life  which  is  felt  throughout  the  Philippines  and  the  firm  and 
courageous,  though  not  untroublefl,  confidence  of  the  spirit  of 
Japan. 

Outwardly  the  first  aspects  of  China  confirmed  the  feeling  of 
discouragement.  There  were  new  buildings  along  the  Bund  in 
Canton,  and  what  was  waste  land  twenty  years  ago  had  been 
redeemed,  but  otherwise  the  city  seemed  almost  unchanged.  And 
Mukden  was  like  the  old  Peking  of  earlier  days  and  worse,  its 
roads  either  morasses  of  mud  or  dried  crevices  cut  by  cart 
wheels  which  no  roads  could  withstand,  its  walls  and  gates  out 
of  repair  and  the  whole  city,  away  from  the  railroad  station 
and  the  Japanese  concession,  marked  by  the  mildew  of  reaction. 
But  one  does  not  need  to  go  far  in  China  before  the  idea  that 

414 


the  country  has  stood  still  or  is  standing  still  now  is  contradict- 
ed by  facts  on  every  hand.  When  we  were  in  China  before,  the 
only  railroads  in  the  country  were  from  Tientsin  to  the  outskirts 
of  Peking  and  from  Shan  Hai  Kuan  to  Tientsin.  The  railroad 
which  had  been  constructed  from  Shanghai  to  Woosung  had 
been  torn  up  as  a concession  to  Chinese  superstition.  Now  there 
are  5,000  miles  of  railroad  already  built  and  many  more  pro- 
jected, and  we  were  able  to  cover  in  comfortable  journeys  of 
six  or  seven  days  of  railway  travel  what  it  would  have  required 
almost  as  many  months  by  cart  and  boat  and  on  foot  to  have 
done  twenty  years  ago.  Peking  was  an  absolutely  transformed 
city,  the  railway  now  running  through  the  walls  into  the  heart 
of  the  city,  broad  macadamized  roads  traversing  the  city  in 
every  direction,  rickshas  and  carriages  and  automobiles  taking 
the  place  of  the  heavy,  .springle.ss  carts  which  were  the  only 
means  of  movement  before,  modern  hotels  and  office  buildings 
standing  where  Chinese  shops  and  liovels  had  been.  Shanghai 
had  grown  so  that  there  were  handsome  school  buildings  and 
blocks  of  residences  like  sections  of  a residence  district  in  New 
York  far  out  in  what  had  been  rice  fields  when  we  were  here 
before.  Intelligent  and  honest  officials  in  cities  like  Hangchow 
had  built  new  roads  and  opened  up  waste  property  and  encour- 
aged enterprise.  It  would  be  easy  to  multiply  indefinitely  the 
evidence  of  China’s  material  advancement.  It  will  suffice  to 
mention  as  a .single  illustration  the  Ilanyehping  Iron  and  Coal 
Company  whose  manager,  Mr.  K.  S.  Wang,  told  us  that  they  em- 
ployed now  five  thou.sand  laborers,  that  the  whole  great  plant 
both  at  the  mines  and  the  furnaces  was  conducted  by  Chinese, 
that  there  were  no  .Tapanese  whatever  in  their  works  and  only 
a few  and  dimini.shing  number  of  foreign  expert  advisers.  The 
immense  capacities  of  the  country  for  production  and  progress 
have  been  only  in  the  slightest  degrro  released,  but  the  young 
men  of  China  and  their  friends  ought  not  to  be  discouraged  at 
rtie  beginnings  which  have  been  made. 

As  we  have  gone  on  in  China  we  have  found  in  each  depart- 
ment of  life,  as  might  have  been  ex])ecte<l,  the  same  need  of  bal- 
ancing the  gi-ouuds  nf  discfuiragcuuMit  and  of  hope.  It  is  so  in 
the  case  of  the  gov(*niiueut  ami  of  i»olitical  administration.  The 
young  men  generally,  and  iiidrod  all  the  Chinese  with  whom  we 
have  talked,  with  the  exception  of  a few  officials,  have  been  great- 
ly cast  down  over  the  monarchical  movement.  They  have  re- 
cogniz(Ml  that  Ke])ublican  government  did  not  exist,  but  they 
hoped  that  the  form  might  be  pre.served,  knowing  that  it  would 
be  easier  to  develop  the  reality  within  the  form  than  to  recover 
the  form  later  if  it  should  be  destroyed  now.  They  believed 
that  the  change  was  ])robably  inevitable  and  they  thought  that 
it  would  be  imide  without  di.sorder.  as  the  President  controlled 
the  army  and  had.  skillfully  distribut(‘d  it,  and  reorganized  the 
)>olice  so  as  to  have  every  section  of  the  nation  in  hand,  and 
also  because  the  merohant  cla.ss  deprecated  any  further  disturb- 

415 


ance.  At  the  same  time  they  recognized  the  force  of  the  argu- 
ment which  has  doubtless  led  Yuan  Shi  Kai  to  a sincere  convic- 
tion that  the  change  was  desirable  in  order  that  his  really  mon- 
archical power  might  be  legalized  and  that  there  might  be  a 
pacific  provision  for  some  succession  to  his  authority,  although 
it  must  be  addefl  that  the  public  estimate  of  the  character  of 
his  sons  is  unfavorable.  If  it  is  said  and  admitted,  as  it  will  be, 
that  a great  deal  of  the  old  graft  and  corruption  has  come  back 
into  the  public  semuce,  it  must  be  recognized  also  that  a large 
number  of  young  and  efficient  and  honest  men  who  found  their 
way  into  the  government  sendee  at  the  time  of  tbe  revolution 
have  been  retained  by  the  old  element  which  has  returned,  but 
which  recognizes  that  a new  day  has  come  and  that  some  men 
must  be  kept  in  the  public  sendee  who  can  deal  \\dth  the  new 
problems.  It  may  be  said  generally  that  while  in  governmental 
admini.stration  there  has  been  a reaction,  by  no  means  all  the 
ground  gained  by  the  forces  of  progress  has  been  lost,  and  the 
general  conviction  is  that  Yuan  Shi  Kai  is  doing  the  best  he 
can  for  the  country  and  is  sincerely  desirous  of  promoting  its 
progress  at  a deliberate  pace  and  without  rupture  with  the  past. 
Whoever  studies  the  Asiatic  nations  will  realize  that  this  is  4 
real  problem  and  that  it  requires  a very  high  degree  of  statas- 
manship  to  know  what  of  the  old  to  cut  away  and  what  to  leave 
that  the-new  may  be  grafted  on. 

When  we  asked  one  of  the  most  thoughtful  men  in  China  why 
it  was  that  China  had  not  been  able  to  make  the  transition  from 
the  old  order  to  the  new  as  Japan  had  done,  and  why  the  young 
men  who  had  led  the  revolution  when  they  had  the  power  in 
their  hands  had  not  been  able  to  do  what  the  young  men  whom 
we  now  speak  of  as  the  elder  stat&smen  had  done  for  Japan  in 
the  days  of  their  youth,  he  replied  that  there  were  many  answers, 
some  involving  racial  characteristics,  others  the  difference  in 
the  size  of  the  two  nations  and  in  their  political  traditions  and 
national  temper,  other  problems  of  e^lucational  psychology,  but 
that  he  himself  was  disposed  to  lay  the  blame  largely  upon  the 
Dowager  Empress  who  had  had  the  opportunity  to  be  to  China 
what  the  late  Emperor  of  Japan  had  been  to  his  nation,  but 
who  had  been  wholly  blind  to  her  opportunity  and  instead  of 
guiding  the  forces  of  transition  had  strangled  the  nation  on  the 
thre.shold  of  its  new  day,  that  she  had  thrown  into  chaos  what 
with  wise  handling  might  have  been  made  the  processes  of  ord- 
erly national  reconstruction.  Two  other  men  were  present  who 
had  been  in  China  for  many  years  and  one  said  that  his  ex- 
planation was  that  in  this  as  in  all  things  the  Chinese  mistook 
the  superficial  for  the  real  with  the  inevitable  consequences  of 
such  incapacity  for  true  judgment,  and  the  other  said  that  he 
attributed  it  to  the  Chinese  want  of  co-operation,  that  the  peo- 
ple knew  how  to  combine  temporarily  but  did  not  know  the 
secret  of  organic  co-operation,  sustained  and  constructively  di- 
rected. But  one  hesitates  to  accept,  even  from  wise  men,  such 
judgments  of  racial  incapacity  against  the  Chinese. 

416 


In  the  social  conditions  of  China,  also,  the  elements  of  de- 
pression and  hope  are  mingled  today.  On  the  railroad  train 
from  Tientsin  to  Peking  we  fell  in  with  the  well  known  philan- 
thropist and  social  reformer  Mr.  Yung  Tao.  He  is  the  man  who 
at  the  time  of  Mr.  Eddy’s  visit  was  moved  to  buy  5,000  Bibles  to 
present  to  officials  and  prominent  Chinese  that  they  might  seek 
therein  the  springs  of  China’s  moral  renewal.  He  has  sent  these 
out  with  a card  stating  that  they  were  from  one  who  was  not  a 
Christian.  He  thinks  his  influence  is  increased  by  the  fact  that 
he  speaks  as  one  who  has  not  connected  himself  with  the  church 
■although  he  seems  to  be,  in  conviction  and  in  spirit,  if  not  a 
Christian,  then  very  near  the  Kingdom.  He  has  set  up  over 
Peking,  Chinese  fa.shion,  tablets  of  moral  exhortation,  and  in 
halls  and  public  parks  he  fearlessly  preaches  an  exacting  gospel 
of  social  and  moral  reform.  After  an  interesting  conversation 
he  dictated  the  following  statement  of  his  views  and  endeavors: 
“The  most  dangerous  point  of  China  is  this,  that  most  people 
look  only  after  pleasures.  In  order  to  get  a pleasure  they  must 
secure  some  money  either  by  squeezing  or  by  gambling.  When 
by  chance  they  get  money  their  first  thought  is  to  marry  a con- 
cubine. The  more  money  they  have  won  the  more  concubines 
they  will  marry.  The  Chinese  can  do  business  as  well  as  others, 
but  they  are  so  engaged  with  this  system  of  concubinage  that 
they  are  always  satisfied  with  a little  because  they  want  all  the 
time  they  can  have  with  their  concubines.  This  concubine  sys- 
tem has  existed  in  China  for  thousands  of  year.s,  but  iu  the  olden 
times  only  the  higher  classes  of  people  could  have  concubines. 
Now,  however,  this  thing  has  sjtread  so  widely  that  it  has  gone 
to  nearly  all  classes.  If  China  stood  alone  such  a sy.stem  would 
not  be  bothered  about,  but  now  China  is  open  to  all  countries. 
She  can  depend  only  upon  the  rich  people  and  the  people  in 
])ower.  Now  the  powerful  people  and  the  I'ich  people  are  nearly 
all  engaged  in  the  concubine  .system.  That  is  why  China  is  go- 
ing constantly  down  every  day  because  the  high  class  people 
and  the  l ich  j)eo])le  want  to  get  money  very  quickly  by  .squeezing 
in  order  to  have  their  private  pleasures.  China  is  hopeless  un- 
less this  system  is  jnohibited.  Instead  of  prohibiting,  however, 
about  four  months  ago  the  Chinese  government  pa.ssed  a new 
law  allowing  peoj>le  to  marry  more  wives,  a thing  which  has 
never  been  allowed  in  the  old  law.  They  think  that  they  deseiwe 
to  marry  so  many  wives.  They  never  think  that  this  is  the  weak- 
ness of  China.  AYhv  do  they  scpieeze?  Because  they  want  to 
support  their  young  wives. 

country  is  made  up  of  families.  The  principle  of  the  fam- 
ily is  the  hu.sband  and  the  wife.  The  Chinese  families  of  the  high 
class  have  so  many  wives  kicking  each  other,  being  jealous  of 
each  other,  holding  each  other  down.  Why  do  the  girls  wish  to  be- 
come a second  wife?  Because  they  want  to  wear  good  clothes. 
The  poor  husband  has  to  support  them.  That  is  why  when 
anything  comes  to  their  hand  they  gra.sp  the  money  or  squeeze 
it  out  of  others.  I have  looked  into  this  very  minutely  and  every 

417 

14 — Report  of  Doputa,tlon. 


business  that  is  in  the  hands  of  people  having  many  wives  is 
never  successful.  These  people  have  no  far-sighte<l  ideas.  Thej' 
only  care  for  the  young  girls.  What  a pity  this  is  that  a coun- 
try requires  men,  experienced  men,  to  help  her,  but  instead  of 
helping,  the  men  are  engaged  along  .such  lines.  The  people  who 
have  no  chance  to  gain  money  by  .squeezing  go  into  gambling 
for  they  tliink  that  in  this  waj"  they  c-an  reach  their  aim  of 
pleasure. 

‘‘The  great  weakness  is  that  all  the  old  .sages  have  taught  that 
when  a man  has  a bad  habit  you  must  not  say  anything  about  it, 
so  that  a man  may  have  all  these  bad  habits  and  it  will  be  kept 
a secret.  This  is  not  right.  Good  and  evil  must  be  pointed  out 
very  clearly  in  order  that  people  may  knoAv  which  is  right  and 
which  is  wrong.  The  concubines  and  the  gambling  are  the  weak- 
ness of  China.  I hope  that  friends  of  God’s  puiq^oses  to  save 
China  will  point  out  the.se  evils  and  show  them  up  to  the  whole 
world  that  the  Chine.se  may  be  ashamed  of  themselves.  Just  as 
in  a sickness  when  all  inside  is  destroyed  and  diseased.  If  we 
show  it  up  with  a knife  all  the  diseased  matters  will  come  out. 

“Ninety  per  cent,  of  the  Chine.se  are  poor  people.  The.se  peo- 
ple are  good  people.  Ten  per  cent,  are  rich  people  and  the  people 
in  power.  Of  this  10  per  cent.,  00  per  cent,  have  these  bad  habits. 
T hope  earnestly  that  all  our  countr\Tnen  and  the  friends  of  all 
nations  will  complain  of  this  wuckedne.ss  in  order  to  save  this 
90  per  cent,  of  poor  people.  These  poor  people  are  good  workers, 
they  are  honest,  they  are  diligent,  they  are  economical,  they  can 
live  in  a ver\^  poor  state.  Most  of  the  rich  behave  so  badly  that 
they  deserve  to  have  a bad  result  come  upon  them.  But  if  any- 
thing happens  to  these  rich  people,  the  poor  people  will  have  to 
siiffer  also. 

‘^Such  an  evil  can  be  stopped,  for  the  rich  people  and  those  in 
power  always  listen  to  law.  Take  opium  for  example.  Once  get 
into  the  habit  and  it  was  very  hard  to  give  it  up.  But  when  the 
government  prohibits  it,  then  the  people  give  it  up  at  once.  The 
system  of  concubinage  could  also  be  given  up  easily  if  the  govern- 
ment wished  to  have  it  so.  As  I have  said,  most  of  the  people 
are  opposed  to  this  system.  If  this  were  not  so,  prohibition 
could  not  be  expected. 

“I  have  offered  myself  to  work  against  this  system  for  my 
whole  life.  I hope  to  get  many  Chinese  and  other  friends  to  help 
me  too.  I think  if  we  keep  on  getting  numbers  of  people  to  pe- 
tition the  government  this  may  be  stopped.  It  is  a hard  test. 
It  can  never  be  done  unless  most  of  the  Chinese  know  that  it  is 
a bad  thing.  I think  it  is  no  use  to  ask  one  or  two  men  to 
petition  the  government  to  pass  such  a law.  What  is  most  nec- 
essary is  a public  opinion.  I started  to  oppose  this  system  in 
Peking  about  a year  ago  and  all  the  poor  classes  say  that  I am 
right.  But  the  people  with  many  wives  dislike  to  listen  and 
they  even  try  to  harm  me  in  other  ways.  But  I think  if  we  keep 
on  like  this  they  will  not  oppose  it  much  longer.  I have  con- 

418 


sidered  many  other  ways  of  fighting  this  system  but  they  are  no 
use.  Even  the  wives  of  the  family  can  do  nothing  because  the 
Chinese  ladies  have  no  power  over  the  house.  The  property  is 
all  in  the  hands  of  the  husband,  who  treats  his  wife  just  like  a 
plaything.  When  her  beauty  is  gone  he  wants  to  try  to  get  an- 
other. China  is  lawless.  The  only  way  to  oppose  this  system  is 
by  talking  and  lecturing  and  showing  it  up.  It  is  my  idea  that 
we  must  get  rid  of  this  evil,  so  my  message,  my  preacher’s  sub- 
ject is  first  that  every  one  must  honor  God,  second,  do  their 
duty  with  all  their  might,  and  third,  be  diligent  and  economical. 
These  three  we  must  do  and  I have  another  three  which  we  must 
not  do,  first,  not  to  marry  more  than  one  wife,  second,  not  to 
play  in  the  whore  house,  third  not  to  gamble.  These  are  my  sub- 
jects which  I intend  to  say  to  my  fellow  countrymen  all  the 
time.” 

These  are  the  strong  words  of  an  earnest  reformer  who  sees 
vividly  the  abuses  which  he  seeks  to  remedy.  Doubtless  the 
great  body  of  life  in  China,  as  Mr.  Yung  Tao  says,  is  as  decent 
and  moral  as  it  has  ever  been.  No  nation  could  have  held  to- 
gether for  four  thousand  years  as  the  Chinese  have  done  and  as 
they  are  doing  today,  with  an  unrelaxed  racial  continuity,  if  the 
moral  foundations  of  society  had  not  been  sound.  But  the  worm 
of  corruption  which  Mr.  Yung  Tao  hates  is  certainly  at  work 
and  its  ravages  in  high  places  are  whispered  with  shame  and 
contempt  among  the  people. 

Industrially  China  has  been  and  in  the  main  is  still  an  agri- 
cultural nation.  Agriculture  has  been  supplemented,  however, 
by  household  trades  and  these  are  now  beginning  to  feel  the  ef- 
fects of  the  increasing  import  of  factory-made  products  from 
Japan  and  the  west.  And  the  factory  sy.stem  itself  has  begun  in 
many  centers  in  Chijia  and  it  is  already  far  developed  in  Shang- 
hai, Tientsin,  Hankow  and  oilier  cities.  It  is  heart-breaking  to 
go  into  the  great  cotton  factories  and  see  the  men  and  women 
and  children,  chiefly  wonien,  and  children  of  eight  years  old  and 
upward,  working  in  long  twelve-hour  .shifts  seven  days  in  the 
week  and  ever\'  week  of  the  yeai-.  Near  the  house  where  we  were 
staying  in  Shanghai  we"  saw  each  evening  tlie  large  companies  of 
women  and  lit  lie  girls  carrying  their  simple  rice  bowls  in  their 
liands  on  their  way  for  their  long  night  toil.  If  there  are  too 
many  lives  in  China  the  present  factory  system  will  liring  a 
nmrdei-ous  relief.  We  met  with  Chinese  factory  owners  who  are 
eager  to  see  conditions  reformed  bnt  the  problem  is  complicated. 
In  Shangliai  om^tliird  of  th(‘  cajiital,  including  the  jiart  that  is 
most  i-emiinerative,  is  British,  anotlier  third  is  Japanese,  and 
only  one-third  is  Chinese.  It  may  well  be  that  the  killing  strain 
of  the  factory  life  is  after  all  not  much  greater  than  the  ordinary’ 
struggle  for  existence  and  that  the  prohibition  of  child  labor 
might  bring  more  sufi'ering  than  its  permission  entails. 

A new  industrial  order  in  China  is  inevitable  and  it  will 
come  with  consequences  both  to  China  and  to  the  rest  of  the 

419 


world  which  no  one  can  foresee.  When  the  cheapest,  .steadiest, 
most  efficient  labor  in  the  world,  representing  more  than  a fourth 
of  the  working  power  of  hnmanitj’,  is  employe<l  in  its  own  mills, 
working  up  its  own  raw  materials,  and  with  the  prf>duct  enters 
into  competition  with  the  west,  a new  chapter  of  economic  his- 
tory will  begin  and  a new  day  for  China  as  well.  Will  it  be 
a happier  day?  Only  if  tlie  new  sorrows  are  met  with  new  joys, 
which  only  Christianity  and  not  industrialism  can  bring. 

In  the  educational  life  of  the  nation,  the  despondent  view  of 
conditions  which  one  at  first  meets  seems  not  to  be  sustained 
by  file  facts.  Dr.  Fong  Sec  and  Mr.  H.  K.  Tong  who  are  prob- 
ably as  well  informe^l  as  any  men  with  regard  to  general  edu- 
cational conditions,  while  recognizing  that  all  figures  are  only 
approximate  and  that  there  are  few  statistics  in  China  at  pres- 
ent which  can  be  relied  upon,  state  “that  China  has  nearly 
doubled  the  number  of  schools  since  the  first  Devolution.  In 
1911  there  were  approximately  .39,000  schools,  which  includeil 
higli  schools,  colleges  and  universities,  but  exclusive  of  mission- 
ary institution.s.  At  the  end  of  1914  the  number  of  schools  had 
increased  to  .59,790.  an  increase  of  more  than  two-fifths  in  less 
than  four  years.  Of  00,000  schools,  .37,000  were  private.  Peking 
has  more  than  700  schools.  At  the  end  of  1914  there  were  .3,849,- 
2.54  students,  representing  one  per  cent,  of  the  population  of  the 
country.  By  adding  the  number  of  persons  who  have  studied  in 
file  old  Confncian  schools,  it  is  estimated  that  one  out  of  fifty 
people  in  China  receive  the  rudiments  of  education.  This  is 
gratifying  wlien  we  remember  that  during  the  last  year  of  the 
Ching  Dynasty  only  one  out  of  400  or  more  people  was  a stu- 
dent. More  than  200,000  Chinese  and  000  foreign  teachers  are 
instructing  the  4,000,000  students,  averaging  one  teacher  to 
ever\"  twenty  pupils.” 

How  insecure  such  figures  are  may  be  seen  from  the  fact  that 
in  statistics  published  in  the  “Educational  Beview,”  Oct.,  1914, 
Dr.  Fong  Sec  estimated  the  total  attendance  in  all  government 
and  private  schools  exclusive  of  mission  schools  at  892.514, 
while  he  estimated  the  amount  .spent  on  education  during  1914 
as  if93, 440,000  Mexican  of  which  .830,000.000  was  from  the  gov- 
ernment. Yet  the  statistics  given  out  by  the  Board  of  Educa- 
tion in  Peking  for  the  year  1913  reporte^l  in  the  government 


schools : 

Total  number  of  schools  73,901 

Total  number  of  pupils  2,848,214 

Grand  total  expenditures  .?28,350,890 

By  Central  Government  13,708,935 

By  Local  Governments  14,641,955 


Whatever  the  statistics  may  show,  however, — and  they  are  not 
altogether  discouraging, — there  can  be  no  doubt  about  the  deep 
general  interest  in  education  and  the  realization  of  its  import- 
ance to  the  state.  On  .Ian.  1,  1915,  President  Yuan  began  the 
year  with  a presidential  mandate  on  national  education,  signifi- 

420 


caut  for  its  recognition  of  the  necessity  of  establishing  an  ade- 
quate national  system,  its  emphasis  on  the  moral  qualities  which 
seemed  to  the  President  most  essential,  and  its  assurance  with 
regard  to  private  schools.  The  mandate  was  as  follows : 

‘‘We  are  now  in  a transition  period  and  our  educational  policy 
has  not  yet  been  definitely  shaped.  When  I,  the  President,  was 
an  official  under  the  Manchu  regime  I considered  it  as  of  prime 
importance  to  abolish  the  old  system  of  literarj^  examinations 
and  establish  schools  in  their  stead.  My  idea  being  new,  these 
.schools  though  established  were  not  properly  conducted ; thus 
they  seemed  satisfactory’  in  form  hut  were  otherwise  in  spirit. 
Since  the  Itevolution  the  country  has  not  enjoyed  undisturbed 
peace,  and  though  it  is  now  three  years  since  the  Republic  was 
formed,  owing  to  financial  difliculties,  we  have  not  been  able  to 
work  out  the  fundamental  plans  of  our  educational  policy.  The 
matter  of  governing  a country,  it  is  to  be  remembered,  is  similar 
to  that  of  governing  a family.  The  poorer  the  family  the  more 
important  it  is  that  the  education  of  its  children  should  not  he 
neglected,  and  the  weaker  the  nation  the  moi*e  important  it  is 
tliat  its  people  should  .seek  knowledge.  In  foi’eign  countries  in 
tlie  East  and  West,  writings  on  technical  and  professional  sub- 
jects by  their  ])eople  are  numerons,  and  from  eigiit  to  ninety 
])er  cent,  of  their  ])eople  are  able  to  read  and  write.  Looking  at 
our  own  country  we  find  that  most  of  the  pnhlislied  l)ooks  are 
mere  reproductions  and  those  of  which  the  authors  can  claim 
co])yright  are  as  few  as  the  straggling  morning  stars,  (tonsi*- 
(piently  brilliant  youtlis  ai-e  in  lack  of  institutions  in  wliich  they 
can  jMirsue  liigher  hranclies  of  learning  and  raw  school  children 
are  in  want  of  com])etent  teachers.  This  state  of  affairs  is  no 
doubt  mainly  due  to  the  inability  of  llie  state  lo  subsidize  the 
schools,  hut  our  i)eople  .should  remember  that  tho.se  that  are 
learned  should  teach  the  un.sophist icated  and  those  that  are  edu- 
cated .sluMild  teach  the  uneducated.  In  fact,  the  duty  of  educat- 
ing the  people  falls  not  only  on  the  educated  class  but  on  every 
free  citizen  of  the  country. 

“Now  that  there  is  no  more  turmoil  in  the  country  and  the 
foundation  of  the  state  has  been  laid,  I,  the  Pre.s'ident,  intend 
to  carry  out  (nlucational  reforms  without  further  vaccilation.  The 
ancient  fundamental  ])rincij)les  will  be  retained  and  upon  them 
will  be  built  a new  .system  into  which  the  results  of  modern  sci- 
entific re.searches  will  be  introduced.  In  order  to  make  our  peo- 
ple a race  of  great  virtue,  wisdom  and  courage  we  will  first  build 
their  character  on  a basis  of  loyalty,  filial  piet}’,  nnselfish  devo- 
tion and  uprightness,  and  then  teach  them  modern  arts  and 
sciences.  A martial  sj)irit  shall  be  cultiv’ated  in  them  in  order 
to  prepare  them  for  military  service;  ami  empha.sis  must  also  be 
laid  to  make  them  all  ])ractical  men  and  discourage  degenerate 
frivolity.  Their  honesty  should  be  enkindled  and  they  are  to 
be  taught  to  exalt  ])atriotisni  before  every  other  virtue;  tJiey  are 
to  be  trained  to  endure  hardships  and  desjjise  the  practice  of 

421 


hunting  for  office.  They  should  leam  to  rebuke  themselves  and 
consider  it  a shame  whenever  they  are  behind  others  in  their 
literary  pursuits.  The  di.scipline  in  the  schools  shall  be  as  strict 
as  that  which  a general  exercises  in  commanding  his  troops,  but 
the  relation  between  the  master  and  pupil  .shall  be  as  cordial  as 
that  between  a father  and  a son.  These  are  the  objects  I have  in 
view  in  order  to  bring  about  a new  and  purified  atmo.sjdiere  and 
realize  the  true  spirit  of  school  education.  It  will  be  after  we 
have  done  the.se  things  that  we  can  carry  out  the  different 
brandies  of  our  educational  program. 

“In  all  civilized  countries  the  SA’stem  of  free  eilucation  is  in 
vogue  and  each  city  is  divided  into  certain  educational  dLsdricts. 
The  number  of  children  of  .school  age  is  ascertained  and  the  citi- 
zens have  fo  be  responsible  for  the  funds  for  engaging  teachers 
to  teach  the.se  children.  In  this  country  we  have  also  adopted 
this  system  and  fixed  the  four  years  in  the  primarj'  school  as 
the  period  of  free  education,  but  our  people  .seldom  know  where- 
in their  real  duty  lies  and  they  often  neglect  the  valuable  time 
of  their  youths.  We  are  now  aiming  at  establishing  a system 
of  universal  education  .so  as  to  enable  every  one  of  our  people 
to  rely  on  himself  and  get  rid  of  the  habit  of  depending  on 
others.  Private  schools,  if  satisfactorily  conducted  will  be  treat- 
ed in  the  same  manner  as  public  institutions.  Our  educational 
i-eform  begins  with  these  two  important  measures,  namely,  first, 
the  normal  schools,  from  which  shall  .spring  middle  and  ele- 
mentary schools,  shall  be  thoroughly  reorganized  .so  that  they 
may  produce  competent  teachers.  Secondly,  text  book.s,  which 
will  be  used  by  all  the  school.s,  .shall  be  .so  compiled  as  to  secure 
unification  of  standards  throughout  the  whole  countr}'.  The 
Ministry"  of  Education  is  hereby  instructetl  to  make  preparations 
for  the  carrying  out  of  the.se  two  measures  and  it  should  also 
compile  lectures  on  the  principles  of  free  education  to  be  deliv- 
ered to  the  people.  Then,  as  soon  as  the  financ-e  of  the  country 
is  in  a more  healthy  state,  the  different  grades  of  schools  will 
be  gradually  established.” 

In  various  statements  the  President  has  urged  the  impoi'tance 
of  the  preservation  and  cultivation  of  what  he  describes  as  the 
distinctive  Chinese  virtues  of  loyalty,  filial  piety,  temperance, 
and  righteousness.  Portions  of  the  cla.ssics  and  special  ethical 
text  books  are  to  be  used  in  the  government  schools  to  provide 
training  in  the.se  virtues.  The  Boaid  of  Education  in  its  .state- 
ments emphasizes  the  view  of  the  President  and  pwimses  “that 
morality,  militarism,  and  practicability,  should!  be  the  aims 
of  education.”  The  great  lacks  which  the  government  feels 
at  the  present  time  are  money  and  qualified  teachers.  It  has, 
however,  an  increasing  number  of  good  schools  and  Chinese 
private  schools,  some  of  them  of  high  quality,  equaling  or  excell- 
ing most  of  the  missionary  institutions,  have  been  established. 
We  heard  only  praise,  for  example,  of  the  great  school  which 
Mr.  Chang  Bo  Ling,  who  hides  his  Christianity  nowhere,  has 
built  up  in  Tientsin.  And  many  of  the  ablest  young  men  who 

422 


have  been  educated  abroad  and  who,  in  the  early  days  of  the 
Republic,  were  active  in  politics  have  now  turned  to  the  long 
and  solid  work  of  national  education  and  are  at  the  head  of 
efficient  and  growing  government  institutions.  The  development 
of  qualified  teachers  for  primary  schools,  however,  is  a long  task 
and  it  is  desirable  for  China  to  hasten  its  performance  before 
the  great  body  of  old  style  village  school  masters,  now  receiving 
no  new  recruits,  has  passed  away.  It  might  be  supposed  that 
such  a situation  would  offer  a wide  opportunity  to  mission  nor- 
mal schools  and  there  is  indeed  such  an  opportunity  but  the 
transition  processes  and  readjustments  of  society  are  very  rough 
and  disordered,  and  need  and  supply  cannot  be  defined  and 
matched  amid  coarse  and  unjointed  realities  as  they  can  on 
paper. 

In  religion  there  has  certainly  been  at  least  a superficial 
reaction  since  the  beginnings  of  the  Republic.  Then,  as  in  the 
days  of  the  Tai  Ping.s,  there  was  a great  upheaval  of  idolatry, 
images  were  stored  away  out  of  sight  or  pulled  down  and 
destroyed  and  temples,  to  which  indeed  for  the  most  part  few 
people  came,  were  turned  to  beneficial  public  uses  or  allowed 
to  fall  into  ruin.  Now,  however,  one  meets  everywhere  with 
temples  undergoing  a process  of  restoration  or  renewal.  In 
Hangchow  one  of  the  great  temples  was  being  entirely  repaired 
by  a government  official  and  the  huge  new  pillars  which  had 
been  put  in  were  of  Oregon  pine  costing,  it  was  said,  a thousand 
dollars  apiece.  On  the  hill  back  of  the  Hwaiyuen  station  the 
little  Taoist  temple  which  had  fallen  into  complete  neglect  had 
been  re-e.stablished  and  processions  to  it,  abandoned  for  a little 
while,  had  been  renewed.  The  example  of  the  President  was 
referred  to  in  the  renewal  of  the  ceremonies  at  the  alj;ar  of  heaven. 
The  general  opinion  which  we  met  in  China  was  that  there  was 
a disposition  to  go  more  slowly  in  surrendering  the  past,  the 
Confucian  influence  was  a little  stronger  than  it  had  been  and 
that  the  movement  against  the  old  idolatries  was  less  pro- 
nounced. 

But  yet  more  things  were  urged  on  the  hopeful  side.  It  was 
pointed  out  that  the  movement  to  make  Confucianism  an  estab- 
lished religion  and  to  harden  the  attitude  of  the  government 
against  Chri.stianity  had  apparently  completely  collapsed,  that 
the  Confucian  as.sociations  in  many  cities  had  died  through  their 
inability  to  arouse  any  interest.  With  regard  to  the  President’s 
worship  at  the  altar  of  heaven  it  was  felt  that  probably  many 
motives  entered  into  it  as  might  appear  from  the  President’s 
mandate  explaining  it,  but  that  neither  that  ceremony  nor  gen- 
eral conditions  throughout  the  country-  indicated  any  renewal  of 
spiritual  vitality  in  Confucianism  and  that  its  net  result  in  the 
light  of  the  language  of  the  President  would  be  a simple  reaf- 
firmation of  the  t heist ic  ideas  which  Confucian  agno.stici.sm  has 
not  been  able  to  repress.  Both  for  its  religious  and  its  political 
significance  it  is  worth  while  quoting  the  mandate  of  the  Presi- 
dent disavowing  any  imperialistic  idea  in  his  worship: 

423 


“The  ceremony  for  the  offering  of  bullocks  has  been  recorded 
in  Ancient  Records,  and  the  system  of  altars  is  given  in  detail 
to  Chow  Kuang.  The  Ancients  respecte<l  the  Great  Heaven, 
hence  they  offered  it  sacrifices.  When  we  review  the  Ancient 
Records  we  find  the  matter  of  sacrifice  to  occupy  a most  promi- 
nent part.  However,  since  the  revolution^  all  kinds  of  opinions 
have  presented  themselves  to  the  public.  It  is  said  that  the 
system  of  honoring  Heaven  originated  from  the  monarchical  sys- 
tem, and  that  the  practice  of  offering  sacrifices  in  the  suburbs 
should  not  be  retained  by  the  Min  Kuo.  Thus  the  ceremony 
should  be  abolished  as  was  the  case  of  the  sugge.stion  to  abolish 
the  offering  of  sheep  in  Confucius’  time.  Indeed  thej'  have  held 
the  doctrine  of  the  equality  of  all  tlie  people,  and  vet  they  have 
failed  to  appreciate  the  sincere  respect  for  the  presence  of  Gf>d. 
They  tliink  that  to  worshij)  ancestors  is  an  act  to  be  performed 
by  the  .sovereign  of  a nation,  ignoring  the  fact  that  to  remember 
the  origin  from  which  one  deriv&s  his  being  is  a common  prin- 
ciple of  .society.  They  have  cau.sed  the  abolition  of  the  sacrifice 
of  bullocks,  and  made  altars  a heap  of  ruins.  Certainly  this  is 
not  the  way  to  manifest  the  Grand  Ceremony  and  to  honor  tlie 
august  traditions.  Heaven  countenances  what  is  countenanced 
by  the  people,  and  Heaven  hears  what  is  acceptable  to  the  ear 
of  the  people.  Anything  which  the  people  ask  will  be  granted 
by  Heaven.  Therefore  in  ancient  times  when  the  sovereigns  gov- 
erned the  people  they  reigned  in  the  name  of  Heaven.  It  meant 
that  an  ej'e  was  there  alwaj's  looking  down  with  power,  and 
showed  that  there  was  the  presence  of  the  Unseen  to  afford  just 
protection.  Such  sentiment  corresponds  exactly  with  the  spirit 
of  republicanism. 

“The  Standard  Ceremony  for  the  Worship  of  Heaven,  which 
was  passed  by  the  Political  Conference  and  fixed  by  the  Bureau 
of  Rites,  has  already  been  promulgated.  In  a petition  of  the 
Ministry  of  Interior  it  is  now  stated  that  as  the  23rd  of  the  12th 
month  of  this  year  is  the  day  of  the  Winter  Solstice,  during 
which  date  the  Ceremonies  of  the  Worship  of  Heaven  should 
take  place,  therefore  I,  the  President,  have  decided  that  on  that 
date  I will  respectfully  perform  the  ceremonies  in  per.son  at  the 
head  of  all  the  officials  in  the  capacity  of  the  representatives  of 
the  people  of  this  country.  All  the  local  officials,  as  representa- 
tives of  the  people  whom  they  govern,  are  hereby  ordered  to  offer 
sacrifices  in  their  respective  localities.  Thus  the  ancient  ideas 
will  be  preserved  and  the  great  blessings  from  Heaven  may  be 
appreciated.” 

I asked  an  able  native  jn’eacher  what  his  view  was  as  to  any 
revival  of  idolatry  and  also  as  to  the  present  attitude  of  the  peo- 
ple toward  Christianity  and  the  real  condition  of  the  Church. 
He  replied,  “I  see  no  sign  of  any  revival  of  the  old  religions 
among  the  people.  There  is  a fictitious  revival  among  the  offi- 
cials but  the  eyes  of  the  people  are  enlightened  now  as  they 
never  were  before  and  they  say  openly  that  the  requirement  of 

424 


oaths  before  the  god  of  war  and  the  renewal  of  Confucian  speech 
and  forms  are  simply  the  efforts  of  the  officials  to  pull  wool  over 
the  vision  of  the  people.  I meet  no  one  now-a-days  who  outward- 
ly opposes  Christianity  or  denounces  it  as  a false  religion  as 
men  used  to  do.  In  the  chapels  or  on  the  streets  or  on  the  boats, 
all  the  people  speak  well  of  Christianity.  In  the  church  we 
never  knew  before  such  a spirit  of  unity  and  common  effort  as  we 
know  now.  This  last  year  on  our  own  initiative  we  Chinese 
ministers  of  the  .six  different  denominations  in  this  city  have 
been  meeting  alone  and  we  are  working  together.  The  church  is 
far  purer  today  than  it  used  to  be.  People  do  not  enter  it  for 
the  sake  of  political  help.  Formerly  I am  sorry  to  say  there 
were  many  who  tried  to  use  the  church  for  wrong  ends  bxit  they 
have  been  cut  off  and  all  that  is  past  now.  As  to  financial  needs 
we  have  no  face  to  ask  for  more  aid  after  all  the  help  of  the  years 
that  are  past.  Our  great  need  is  for  more  faithful  men  and  our 
message  should  be,  what  I try  to  make  my  own,  the  purity  and 
unity  of  the  chiirch.” 

We  laid  this  whole  question  of  the  present  political,  social, 
educational  and  religious  situation  in  China  before  a large  group 
of  the  ablest  and  most  influential  younger  Cliinese  leaders  who 
were  together  in  one  citv'  and  asked  them  whether  the  general 
view  which  I have  statefl  here  is  correct.  No  better  judgment  of 
pre.sent  conditions  could  be  framed  thau  the  composite  judgment 
which  they  expres.^ed.  Tliey  were  heads  of  schools,  teachers  and 
business  men.  some  connected  with  the  government  and  some 
quite  independent.  It  will  be  fairer  not  to  identify  them  further. 

“The  political  and  social  .situation,”  the  first  speaker  said,  “is 
(juite  dark.  Four  years  ago  it  was  ven’  bright,  but  there  was 
too  great  haste.  It  was  easy  then  for  new  men  to  reach  public 
office.  Now  tlie  wave  has  subside<l.  The  old  element  is  largely 
in  control  again  but  the  mind  of  the  people  has  been  opened  and 
their  thoughts  will  not  go  backward.  And  we  realize  that  here, 
among  the  thoughts  of  the  people,  our  work  is  to  be  found.  We 
u.sed  to  say  that  if  the  ])olitical  machine  could  be  changed  all 
would  be  right  and  we  gave  our.selves  to  the  study  of  govern- 
ment and  to  the  effort  to  change  government.  Of  the  ten  thou- 
sand students  in  .lapau  in  those  days  most  were  studying  politics. 
Well,  the  machine  has  been  changed  and  the  form  of  government 
altererl  and  things  are  as  they  were.  So  now  men  are  trying  to 
change  the  material  out  of  which  the  machine  is  made.  They 
have  come  to  the  opinion  that  we  must  go  back  to  fundamentals 
and  deal  with  social  elements  and  the  raw  materials  of  the 
nation.  The  new  tendency  is  quiet  but  it  is  real.” 

“I  have  been  back  in  China  only  a little  while,”  said  the  second 
speaker,  “but  I think  China  is  making  progress  in  all  these  four 
lines.  If  there  are  signs  of  reaction,  nevertheless  the  main  cur- 
rents are  onward  and  the  backward  movements  are  only  eddies 
in  a running  stream.  In  governmental  affairs  there  has  been 
great  progress  in  comparison  with  the  old  day.  There  really 

425 


has  been  a national  awakening.  The  Revolution  was  only  one  of 
the  signs  of  it.  We  mu.st  not  exaggerate  the  Revolution  and 
then  be  disappointed  with  our  exaggeration.  It  was  only  a sign 
of  a real  movement  that  preceded  it  and  that  lasts  after  it.  And 
probably  the  Revolution  was  too  sudden.  Young  and  inexperi- 
enced men  rushed  into  government  and  were  not  able  to  c-arn' 
the  responsibility  of  it  so  that  the  older  men  came  back,  ye^•er-  , 
theless  they  have  kept  many  of  the  new  men  as  indispensable 
and  while  they  are  .subordinate  they  are  still  wielding  influence. 
Socially  a revolution  sometimes  works  more  harm  than  good 
and  it  does  not  change  moral  practices.  Some  of  the  old  evils 
like  concubinage  continue.  Still  I believe  that  this  practice  is 
increasingly  condemned.  I know  some  men  whose  fathers  kept 
concubines  who  have  resolved  not  to  do  .so.  It  is  true  that  most 
of  these  men  live  in  treaty  ports  and  owe  their  higher  moral  view 
to  foreign  influence.  The  existence  of  the  evil  in  higher  circles 
makes  it  hard  to  fight  the  matter  openly  becau.se  there  is  no 
real  freedom  of  speech.  Educationally  there  is  much  uneasiness 
but  there  is  also  real  progress.  The  President  has  declared  that 
he  is  going  to  pay  .special  attention  to  education.  His  acts  en- 
dor.se  his  word.  He  has  been  giving  his  own  money  and  the 
money  of  the  state  for  the  establishment  of  schools  and  the  pre- 
paration of  text  books.  This  has  brought  a new  life  into  edu- 
cation. Religiously  I have  not  heard  much  of  the  restoration  of 
old  beliefs.  Several  years  ago  there  was  a movement  to  promote 
Confucianism  but  this  has  lost  its  ardor  and  the  men  who  pro- 
moted it  are  now  silent.  The  prasent  situation  is  not  .so  gloomy 
as  some  think.  Many  influences  are  working  for  the  uplift  of 
China,  educationj^  communications,  the  Chri.stian  churches  with 
their  schools  and  hos])itals.  the  magazines  and  the  pre.ss.  The 
forces  of  these  movements  cannot  be  stopped.  If  the  number  of 
men  willing  to  sacrifice  for  China  can  be  increased  there  is  no 
need  of  fear.” 

“The  apparent  re.storation  of  old  beliefs  is  not  wholly  bad,” 
added  the  first  speaker.  “In  the  revolution  men  were  too  hasty 
and  negative.  Yow  people  say,  and  I think  there  is  some  justi- 
fication of  their  view,  that  until  we  have  something  better  to 
take  the  place  of  the  old,  they  had  better  retain  the  old.  There 
is  a new  that  is  better,  but  until  it  is  given  to  the  people,  is  it 
not  better  that  they  should  adhere  to  the  little  that  they  have?” 

“It  is  hard  for  us  who  live  in  the  country  and  in  the  midst  of  . 
the  movements  that  are  under  way,  to  form  a true  judgment,” 
said  the  third  speaker.  “We  may  be  affected  by  some  backward 
tendency  and  feel  unhappy  or  by  .some  forward  movement  and 
feel  unduly  elated.  But  on  the  whole  we  are  and,  I believe,  h^ve 
a right  to  be  hopeful.  If  our  friends  abroad  will  have  patience 
with  us  we  will  succeed.  The  country  is  large  and  its  customs 
are  old.  Anything  new  must  come  slowly  and  the  new  men  must 
grow  up  into  power  through  experience.  In  the  days  of  the 
revolution  a friend  of  mine  was  made  chief  of  the  foreign  oflice 

426 


in  one  of  the  provinces.  He  was  a good,  efficient  Christian  man, 
but  he  was  young  and  inexperienced  and  the  people  had  not  ac- 
quired faith  in  him,  and  in  the  face  of  his  new  and  great  respon- 
sibilities he  lost  faith  in  himself  and  failed.  This  happened  in 
many  places  and  it  was  what  helped  to  bring  the  old  men  back. 
But  the  leaven  has  been  put  into  the  flour,  the  new  life  into  the 
nation.  The  backward  movements  and  the  hindrances  are  only 
eddies  in  the  stream  or  pebbles  in  its  course.  I feel  encouraged 
nt  the  thought  that  God  is  depending  on  us  and  will  help  ns  and 
also  because  we  are  not  alone  in  our  struggle  but  have  friends 
who  are  praying  for  us.  We  beg  them  not  to  despair.  The 
fruit  will  yet  appear.” 

“I  am  a man  from  the  backwoods,”  said  the  fourth  speaker, 
who,  though  he  came  from  an  inland  city,  was  as  a matter  of, 
fact  one  of  the  most  widely  experienced  men  in  the  group,  “and 
I do  not  understand  these  great  problems  and  I am  naturally  a 
pessimist.  As  to  political  conditions,  I don’t  know.  A man 
told  me  that  the  Bevolution  was  no  use,  that  tlie  people  were 
unchanged,  tlie  .squeezing  was  worse  and  bribes  more  common 
and  the  nation  poorer.  The  birth  rate  gives  us  more  ignorance 
than  tlie  .schools  dispel.  The  old  style  private  schools  are  gone. 
What  can  be  done?  Will  a pail  of  water  quench  a great  fire? 
We  men  ought  to  make  the  new  conscience.  Have  we  done  this? 
IMany  students  have  gone  abroad  to  study.  They  come  back 
puffed  up,  talking  Eugli.sh,  foreigiiized,  wanting  to  be  served. 
Have  the  returned  students  done  much  to  better  our  conditions? 
How  can  we  get  good  .students  from  abroad  to  change  the  eco- 
nomic conditions  in  Gliina?  We  must  get  them  from  abroad  or 
else  produce  them  in  China,  and  we  had  better  jiroduce  them 
here  if  we  want  lo  keep  them  Chinese,  as  we  must  if  they  are  to 
lead  the  iieople.  Our  jirobleni  is  an  economic  problem.  Our 
soldiers  wear  watche.s.  Our  jieojile  carry  umbrellas.  We  have 
taken  to  foreign  shoes,  but  we  make  none  of  these  things.  We 
inifiort  them  all.  AVe  havi*  not  evmi  a tannery.  The  peojile  say, 
‘Yon  Chi-islians  startl'd  tlii'  sentiment  for  a Bejniblic  and  noAV 
you  have  no  men  who  can  lead  us,  or  carry  it  through.’  ” 

“The  present  situation,”  said  the  fifth  speaker,  “is  veiw  amor- 
phon.s,  intangible,  inchoate.  AVe  can  hardly  say  anything  defi- 
nite about  it.  Of  course  China  is  making  progre.ss  jnst  as  the 
world  is,  even  during  this  gi'eat  war.  If  we  believe  in  God  or 
religion  we  must  believe  this.  The  trouble  is  we  are  tempted  to 
look  simj)ly  at  a cross  section.  • AVe  are  not  far-sighted  enough. 
AA'e  don’t  see  the  whole  historic  stream,  as  God  doe.s.  If  Ave 
take  the  long  view  we  can  be  hojieful,  but  when  we  come  doA\ui 
to  details  and  face  facts  we  see  the  things  that  are  very  dark. 
It  is  a time  of  reaction.  There  is  a tendency  to  go  back  to  the 
old  order  and  to  make  order  and  not  ]»rogre.ss  the  nile  of  life. 
Of  cour.se  we  must  have  order  but  not  as  opposed  to  progre.ss. 
There  may  be  order  such  as  the  business  men  want  for  trade 
which  is  the  very  enemy  of  progre.ss.  I’rogress  relates  to  the 

427 


free  expansion  of  the  individual.  We  have  less  freedom  for  this 
than  we  had  under  the  Manchns.  The  Confucian  movement,  so 
far  as  there  is  one,  is  simply  political.  The  President  is  not  a 
religions  man.  His  motive  is  simply  the  desire  for  order.  Con- 
fucius lived  in  times  of  war  and  his  whole  influence  was  exerted 
for  the  e.stablishment  of  order,  not  in  the  interest  of  life  and 
progress.  And  it  is  just  so  with'  Confucianism  today.  Its 
authority  is  being  used  wholly  for  order  and  against  progress. 
The  old  men  are  in  the  saddle.  There  is  a revival  of  the  old  su- 
perstitions. I see  in  this  city  the  repair  of  the  temples  on  everj’ 
hand.  As  to  society,  I think  a social  conscience  is  being  created, 
as  against  bribei*;s%  for  examj)le.  As  to  education,  the  appropria- 
tions for  it  have  been  reduced  here  and  elsewhere  and  thirty  per 
cent,  of  what  the  goveranient  gets  is  spent  for  police,  for  the 
•sake  of  order,  which  is  the  ce.s.sation  of  progre.s.s.” 

“I  differ  entirely,”  broke  in  the  third  speaker,  “with  regard 
to  the  rebuilding  of  the  temples.  Not  one-half  of  them  have 
been  rebuilt.  The  others  are  still  torn  down  and  the  idols 
thrown  away.  Some  schools  have  been  closed  but  they  were 
mushroom  enterprises.  On  the  other  hand  look  at  the  new 
schools  which  are  growing  up  and  which  are  really  suited  to  our 
needs.  My  sii<ter  went  to  one  of  the  first  new  schools  and  my 
father  remarked  that  since  she  went  she  was  no  longer  willing 
to  make  her  own  shoes  or  to  do  a girl’s  proper  work  in  the  home. 
We  were  going  wrong  in  many  of  our  new  ways  and  we  had  to 
change.  I am  not  discouraged.” 

“I  too,”  said  the  .second  speaker,  “had  heard  that  the  number 
of  schools  had  decreased  and  I looked  into  the  matter  and  learned 
from  the  ^Minister  of  Education  that  the  number  had  increa.sed 
and  that  the  1,000,000  ])upils  rej)orted  a vear  ago  are  now  2,- 
100,000.” 

“This  backward  movement,”  said  a sixth  member  of  the  group, 
“is  by  no  means  all  bad.  AVe  have  our  own  four-thousand-year- 
old  civiliswition  and  we  need  and  ought  to  take  time  to  assimilate 
the  new  to  the  old.  The  new  can’t  be  built  on  nothing.  It  ought 
to  be  built  on  the  good  of  the  past  and  we  were  in  danger  of 
throwing  that  good  away  with  the  evil.” 

“I  also,”  said  a seventh,  “am  optimi.stic.  AVhen  the  dawn  comes 
the  sky  is  darkest.  I am  a Christian  and  I appreciate  the  em- 
phasis which  Christianity  lays  on  spiritual  things,  but  I think 
that  a large  part  of  our  need  in  China  today  is  industrial.  How 
can  you  build  a church  or  a society  out  of  men  and  women  and 
children  who  work  twelve  and  some  eighteen  hours  a day,  seven 
days  in  the  week,  to  earn  a bare  living?” 

As  the  conference  closed  all  turned  to  one  recognized  as  a 
true  man,  a true  leader,  aud  a true  Chinese.  What  did  he  have 
to  say?  “I  have  some  answers  t<i  give,”  said  he,  “to  the  ques- 
tions that  have  been  raised,  but  it  is  late  and  I will  not  say  them. 
I will  only  ask  our  American  friends  to  carry  our  gi*eetings  and 
gratitude  to  the  United  States,  thanking  the  people  there  for  all 

428 


that  they  have  done  for  us  through  their  missionary  work,  for 
their  national  friendship,  and  for  the  return  of  the  Boxer  in- 
demnity which  we  appreciate  although  it  is  true  that  those  funds 
were  China’s  funds  and  that  it  was  simply  an  act  of  justice  in 
retuiming  to  China  her  own.  I believe  that  it  is  true  that  God 
is  laying  on  us  great  responsibilities,  that  He  expects  us  to  lead 
China  and  to  make  it  a Chinese  China,  but  we  are  not  ready  yet 
to  stand  all  alone.  We  need  the  friendship  of  unselfish  peoples. 
Some  may  be  disposed  to  say  to  ii.s,  ‘You  cannot  do  the  work 
that  needs  to  be  done.  We  wish  to  help  China  and  we  will  come 
to  your  assistance.’  No.  No  nation  can  help  us.  China  must 
be  left  to  help  herself.  Not  even  America  can  help  us.  If 
China  cannot  heal  her  own  evils  and  work  out  her  ovui  problems 
and  accomijlish  her  own  nii.s.sion,  no  one  can  do  it  for  her.  And 
she  can  do  it  for  her.self  if  she  is  but  let  alone.  I speak  plainly. 
There  ought  to  be  only  friendship  and  fullness  of  trust  and  gen- 
erous and  unselfish  helpfulness  between  Japan  and  China.  There 
ought  not  to  be  suspicions  and  boycotts  and  unfriendliness.  The 
Japanese  yellow  papers  talk  about  the  inferiority  of  China,  the 
impossibility  of  reforms  and  the  division  of  the  country.  The 
thoughts  of  the  Jaj)anese  people  are  mi.sled  and  the  Chine.se  read 
these  things  and  are  both  grieved  and  goaded  by  them.  Why 
does  not  Japan  seek  to  win  the  love  of  China?  She  has  had  an 
unparallelled  opportunity  to  do  it  in  the  ca.se  of  the  tens  of 
thousands  of  students  from  China  who  have  studied  in  Tokyo.  Let 
Japan  remember  what  China  has  given  her  in  the  past  in  art  and 
literature  and  }>hiloso]diy  and  let  her  be  generous  and  ju.st  and 
patient  now  until  we  have  had  time  to  deal  with  our  gigantic 
ta.sk  and  to  achieve  it.” 

To  this  task  these  men  and  scores  of  men  and  women  like 
them  are  devotedly  bending  them.selves.  Turning  aside  from  po- 
litical ambitions  they  are  devoting  their  lives  to  the  great  work 
of  social  and  educational  regeneration  which  they  realize  needs 
to  be  done  within  Chinese  life  and  character.  To  .some  of  them 
neverthele.s.s,  i)olitical  opportunity  has  oi)ened  and  in  high  and 
low  places  they  are  giving  the  nation  enlightened  and  patriotic 
service.  Others  of  them  in  ])i-ivate  life  are  laying  out  their  souls 
where  thej'  see  the  newl  to  be  greatest.  Mrs.  Cheo,  of  Nanking, 
is  a representative  of  this  lai-ge  and  growing  com])aii3'  who  are 
building  the  new  China.  Three  years  ago  when  the  .southern 
soldiers  were  returning  after  the  Kevolution  they  brought  with 
them  to  Nanking  hundreds  of  boys  and  girls  whom  they  were 
carrying  south  as  household  slaves.  The  children  were  taken 
from  them  in  Nanking  and  given  to  Mrs.  Cheo.  For  a time  the 
Kej)ublic  sui)ported  them  and  then  discontinued  its  sni)port  until 
through  the  aj)j>eal  of  friendly  inis.sionaries  it  was  resumed.  The 
.same  friendshij)  was  comi)ell(Hl  more  than  once  at  the  ri.sk  of 
life  to  j>rotect  the  or])hanage  against  the  brutality  of  soldiers 
in  the  second  revolution.  Six  hundred  orphans  are  cared  for 
now  in  the  orphanage  with  a discipline,  a management,  a prac- 

429 


ticalness  of  education  and  a tenderness  of  sympathy  such  as 
could  be  envied  in  any  otlier  land.  And  the  whole  institution 
and  its  wonderful  work  rests  on  a frail  little  slip  of  a Chinese 
woman  who  fears  no  man  and  loves  only  God  and  dut}'. 

The  two  conditions  of  all  projiress  are  steadfastness  and  stal>il- 
ity.  Are  not  both  these  conditions  met  in  the  Chinese  people? 
What  people  possess  more  steadfastness?  Three  centuries  ago 
the  Mauchus  overthrew  the  Chinese,  but  who,  really,  was  over- 
thrown? For  those  three  centuries  the  Chine.se  kept  the  line 
of  racial  cleavage  sharp  and  distinct,  subtly  drained  away  the 
energies  of  their  conquerors,  and  now  after  two  hundred  and 
fifty  years  of  steadfastness  of  purpose  have  broken  the  hated 
yoke.  Where  on  earth  is  there  anj’  other  nation  with  .such  abid- 
ing qualities  of  stability  and  endurance?  And  onh’  those  who 
are  ignorant  of  Chinese  history  can  think  of  the  Chinese  as 
impassive  or  immobile.  Xo  nation  has  ever  been  .shaken  by  might- 
ier upheavals  or  responded  more  readily  to  new  ideals  or  .shown 
a more  unflinching  will  for  moral  change.  There  are  many  who 
would  regard  the  wiping  out  of  the  saloon  and  the  liquor  traffic 
in  the  West  as  child’s  play  in  comparison  with  the  .suppre.s.sion 
of  the  opium  traffic  and  the  anniliilation  of  the  opium  habit  in 
China,  and  yet  within  a period  of  ten  years  China  has  bi*oken 
and  burned  uj)  these  chains.  Not  once  did  we  smell  opium  where 
twenty  years  ago  its  odors  were  in  even.’  Chine.se  city.  Not  once 
did  we  see  an  opium  victim  altliough  twenty  years  ago  they  could 
be  found  on  every  highway.  The  moral  enthusia.sm  and  energy’ 
with  which  China  wiped  out  the  opium  curse  is  a proof  that  she 
is  equal  to  any  moral  reform  or  can  be  made  equal  by  the  ener- 
gies of  the  Christian  faith. 

And  the  greate.st  of  all  changes  that  has  taken  place  in  China 
is  the  change  in  the  j)lace  and  influence  of  Christianity.  Let  Mrs. 
Abbey’s  picture  of  “Tlien”  and  “Now”  in  the  station  of  ^Nanking 
suffice  for  illustration. 

“Forty  years  ago,  before  any  of  the  mi.'^sions  at  present  in  Nan- 
king had  set  foot  there,  only  the  temple  roofs  stood  out  above 
the  general  gray  and  green ; the  Confucian  temple  on  a little  hill 
to  the  .south,  the  granaries  with  their  little  ventilating  roofs,  the 
Drum  Tower  and  the  North  Pole  Temple  on  another  hill  to  the 
northeast,  with  beautiful  I’ui'ple  ^fountain  behind  it.  out.side  the 
city,  and  the  sweep  of  hills  and  valleys  to  the  northwast,  where 
the  gentry  had  their  country  homes  before  the  Taiping  Eebellion. 
At  that  time  half  of  the  gray  roofs  between  the  Drum  Tower 
and  the  South  Gate  were  heaps  of  ruins. 

“Our  Presbyterian  Church  was  then  prospecting  for  an  en- 
trance. aud  a 3’ear  later,  three  inexperienced  missionaries  with 
little  knowledge  of  the  language  or  the  people,  were  living  in  a 
rented  Chinese  house,  under  the  .shadow  of  the  southern  wall. 
It  is  a far  cry  from  that  day  to  this. 

“Then,  our  Chi’istians  were  all  imported,  or  of  doubtful  sta- 
bility. Now,  on  Communion  Sunday,  it  is  necessary  to  exclude 

430 


all  but  Christians  and  inquirers  from  the  principal  service  of 
the  day,  and  no  church  is  large  enough  to  accommodate  all  the 
Christians,  when  union  meetings  are  called.  They  are  now  held 
in  three  churches  in  different  parts  of  the  city. 

“Then,  almost  all  hearers  in  the  street-chapels  were  attracted 
by  curiosity.  Coolies  laid  down  their  burdens  and  carelessly 
listened  while  resting.  Now,  it  is  easy  to  draw  an  intelligent 
and  interested  audience  by  cards  of  invitation,  judiciously  dis- 
tributed among  the  students  and  gentry,  who  once  despised  the 
foreiguer  and  his  religion. 

“Then  a^few  children  in  that  Chinese  house  under  the  city 
wall  shouted  the  Classics  and  memorized  the  Gospels  under  a 
heathen  teacher,  with  some  superintendence  from  the  mission- 
arj^’s  wife,  who  lived  over  the  school.  Now  all  over  the  city  are 
thousands  of  boys  and  girls  in  the  numerous  primary  schools, 
and  over  one  thousand  in  the  higher  institutions  of  learning 
housed  in  the  large  foreign  buildings  all  around  us,  the  great 
University  of  Nanking,  including  the  Union  Medical  School,  Nor- 
mal School,  and  an  Agricultural  Department  in  embryo,  and  a 
number  of  girls’  schools  soon  to  be  tapped  by  a Union  College 
for  Women.  The  Theological  Seminary  has  already  been  men- 
tioned. There  is  a corresponding  institution  for  women,  the 
Bible  Teachers’  School,  where  educated  women  can  be  thorough- 
ly trained  as  Christian  leaders.  There  are  also  schools  where 
women  who  never  had  a chance  when  they  were  girls  can  get  an 
elementary  education  and  a knowledge  of  Christian  truth,  so 
that  they  can  teach  their  less  favored  sisters. 

“Then,  a little  quinine  and  castor  oil  were  given  out  by  ama- 
teurs and  a few  would-be  opium  suicides  were  saved.  Now,  sev- 
eral large  hospitals  are  connected  with  the  Medical  Schools,  and 
a Nurses’  Training  School,  and  Chinese  Christians  are  sent  out 
as  doctors  and  nurses  to  carry  the  Gospel  of  healing  for  soul 
and  body. 

“Our  nearest  building  shows  the  great  change  in  the  staff'  of 
foreign  workers.  It  is  a hospital  for  foreigners.  Close  by  they 
are  leveling  the  ground  for  a little  school-house  for  the  children 
of  the  foreign  community  and  plans  are  drawn  for  the  Language 
School  where  the  new  missionaries  of  all  denominations  can 
prepare  for  their  work  and  then  scatter  through  the  whole  Yang- 
ste  Valley.  During  the  last  year  there  were  forty  or  mty  young 
men  and  women  studying  here  in  the  upper  story  of  a University 
building  and  enjoying  the  hospitality  of  the  thirty  or  forty  mis- 
sionary' homes  you  see  scattered  around  you. 

“These  are  a few  of  the  changes  that  have  struck  me  after  an 
absence  of  eight  or  nine  years  in  the  homeland,  but  the  greatest 
changes  cannot  be  told  so  easily.  The  greatest  change  has  taken 
place  in  the  hearts  of  the  people.  Last  spring,  as  I watched  the 
earnest,  intelligent  faces  of  the  congregation  of  women  and  older 
girls  that  were  li.stening  to  Mrs.  Montgomery  and  Mrs.  Pea- 
body, I thought  of  the  old  days  and  the  stolid  faces  that  looked 

431 


into  mine  with  no  comprehension  of  the  blessed  truths  of  the 
■single  Gospel,  and  reached  out  my  hand  to  grasp  that  of  the 
first  Christian  woman  converted  in  Nanking,  about  thirty  years 
ago,  whispering,  ‘Could  you  have  hoped  for  such  a gathering  as 
this,  when  you  first  heard  of  Christ  in  that  chapel  near  the 
South  Gate?’  Waves  of  gratitude  swept  over  us  as  we  thanked 
God  and  took  courage.” 

The  church  at  home  should  look  upon  the  phina  of  yesterday 
and  today  and  take  courage  also  and  her  courage  should  harden 
into  resolution  at  the  thought  which  Dr.  Hayes  has  expressed 
that  “with  China  converted,  considering  her  numbei-s,  re.sources 
and  influence  in  Indo-China  and  the  East  Indies,  we  hold  the  key 
to  all  Eastern  Asia,  but  with  China  unconverted  or  crystallized 
into  infidelity,  we  have  only  touched  the  hem  of  the  Oriental 
garment.”  R.  E.  S. 


432 


3.  SOME  PKESENT-DAY  MISSIONARY  QUESTIONS  IN 

CHINA 


One  cannot  turn  to  the  questions  of  our  own  organized  work 
in  China  without  being  reminded  afresh  of  all  that  has  gone  in 
to  our  missionary"  history-  and  of  the  lives  still  remaining  which 
span  most  of  our  work  among  the  Chinese  people.  There  are 
still  at  work  in  China  seven  missionaries  who  went  out  to  the 
field  prior  to  1870  and  who  have  each  spent,  accordingly,  forty- 
five  y-ears  or  more  in  China,  Dr.  Martin,  who  went  out  in  1850, 
and  Dr.  Famham  in  1859,  and  Dr.  Corbett  in  1863,  Dr.  Wherry 
in  1864,  Miss  Noyes  in  1868,  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Fitch  in  1870.  The 
work  which  these  men  and  women  have  done  is  bey-ond  any  hu- 
man praise  but  it  is  not  beyond  the  recognition  which  the  church 
can  give  in  providing  what  they-  ask  for  the  work  that  remains 
for  them  yet  to  do.  The  Shantung  Mission  is  urging  that  Dr. 
Corbett’s  friends  at  home  and  in  China  should  provide  adequate 
buildings  for  the  .school  in  Chefoo  as  a memorial  to  his  comple- 
tion of  a half  centuiy  of  service.  It  is  interesting  to  recall  that 
when  Dr.  Corbett  came  out  to  China  it  was  on  a 900  ton  sailing 
vessel  which  took  167  days  for  the  voyage  from  New  York  to 
Shanghai  and  that  almost  another  month  was  pas.sed  in  waiting 
at  Shanghai  for  another  steamer  to  Chefoo  and  that  meanwhile 
three  physicians  advised  his  immediate  return  to  the  United 
States  believing  that  he  could  not  live  in  China,  that  the  ship 
on  which  he  .saile<l  for  Chefoo  was  wrecked  on  the  coast  of 
Shantung,  and  that  his  work  was  begun  among  oppo.sition,  pesti- 
lence, and  the  political  chaos  re.sulting  from  the  Taiping  Rebel- 
lion. However  discouraged  other  people  may  become  as  they 
take  their  short  views  of  China,  Dr.  Corbett  smilingly-  looks  back 
over  the  half  century  that  he  has  been  in  China  comparing  what 
was  then  with  what  he  sees  today,  and  rejoices  with  great  joy  and 
boundle.ss  hope. 

I.  General  Evangelistic  Problems. 

A report  of  the  Special  Committee  on  Survey-  and  Statistics, 
.submitted  to  the  China  Continuation  Committee  at  its  meeting 
in  the  spring  of  1915,  shows  how  great  the  growth  of  the  mis- 
sionary- body-  in  China  has  been  and  enables  us  also  to  make  some 
interesting  comparisons  between  the  distribution  of  forces  and 
the  policies  of  the  different  Boards.  In  1876,  twelve  y-ears  after 
Dr.  Corbett  I'eached  the  field,  the  total  number  of  mi.ssionaries 
in  China  was  473.  In  1913  it  was  5,563.  Since  1876  the  men  and 
the  married  women  missionaries  have  increased  roughly  ten 
fold,  but  the  single  women  missionaries,  twenty--six  fold.  Then, 
the  single  women  were  about  one-eighth  of  the  total  mis.sionary 
body.  Now,  they  are  between  a third  and  a fourth.  The  propor- 

4.33 


tion  of  single  women  in  our  Presbyterian  mission,  contrary,  I 
think,  to  what  is  generally  supposed,  is  less  than  the  proportion 
in  any  of  the  other  five  largest  missionarj'  societies  in  China,  as 
the  following  table  will  show: 

Single  Married  Women 


Men 

Women 

Women 

Total 

Total 

China  Inland  Mission 

380 

.345 

270 

615 

995 

American  Presbyterian  Mis.  N 

172 

111 

128 

2.39 

411 

Church  Missionary  Society 

120 

164 

82 

246 

366 

Methodist  Episcopal  Mis.  N 

101 

141 

89 

2.30 

.331 

American  Episcopal  Mission 

48 

46 

94 

169 

This  report  contains  also  a table  showing  the  mission  stations 
opened  in  different  decades  by  the  leading  missionary  Boards, 
as  follows,  although  the  table  is  unsatisfactory',  as  it  omits  five 
of  our  Presbyterian  stations,  six  stations  of  the  Church  Mis- 
sionary' Society',  and  does  not  include  the  facts  regarding  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Missions. 

1807-  I860-  1870-  1880-  18(X)-  1000-  1010-  Total 
1860  1870  1880  1890  1900  1910  1913 


China  Inland  Mission....  2 9 19  4.3  75  50  18  21o 

American  Pre.sb.  N 4 .3  3 4 7 6 4 31 

Church  Missionary  Soc. . .3  2 1 617  9 8 46 

A.  Board  of  Com.  F.  M. . 1 6 2 5 . . . . . . 14 

American  Episcopal  Mis. . 1 2 ..  2 1 9 ..  15 

/ 


Leaving  out  of  consideration  the  China  Inland  Mission  which 
pursues  a somewhat  distinctive  policy,  it  appears  that  since 
1890  the  Church  Missionary'  Society  has  opened  .34  new  stations, 
our  Board,  17,  the  American  Episcopal  Board.  10,  and  the  A.  B. 
C.  F.  M.,  none.  The  Methodists,  the  Church  Missionary  Society 
and  ourselves  are  each  working  in  seven  provinces,  the  Ameri- 
can Episcopal  Board  and  the  A.  B.  C.  F.  M.  in  five.  It  appears 
to  be  the  policy'  of  our  missions  to  build  up  larger  stations  in  the 
main  than  those  of  other  Boards,  although  we  have  no  station 
as  large  as  two  of  the  Methodists’  and  one  of  the  C.  M.  S.’  as  the 
following  table  shows: 

CEXTEKS  WITH 

■ 50  41-50  31-40  21-30  11-20  6-10  3-5  1-2 


MISSIONARIES 

C.  I.  M 1 . . 1 2 4 39  100  69 

A.  P.  M.,  No 2 2 11  12  5 4 

C.  M.  S 1 ..  ..  3 6 7 19  17 

M.  E.  M.,  No 1 1 1 1 5 9 3 6 

Am.  Epis.  Mis 1 ..  ..  1 2 4 5 2 

.\m.  Bapt.  F.  M.  S . . . . . . 5 5 10  1 

A.  B.  C.  F.  M 2 2 9 . . 1 

W.  M.  M.  S 1 8 10  3 


From  these  various  statements  two  facts  appear:  (1)  That 
since  1890  we  have  pursued  a policy  of  extensive  development 
side  by  side  with  the  strengthening  of  the  existing  stations,  while 
the  American  Board  has  followed  an  extreme  policy  of  intensive 
development,  having  opened  no  new  stations  since  1890,  although 

434 


it  has  transferred  one  of  its  old  stations  to  a new  center.  (2) 
That  it  is  the  tendency  in  our  missions  when  a station  has  once 
been  establi.shed  to  build  up  a strong  station  staff.  Our  regular 
stations  almost  always  strive  for  the  development  of  hoys’  and 
girls’  boarding  schools  and  the  establishment  of  hospitals.  Out 
of  thirty-six  stations  we  have  only  nine  with  five  missionaries 
or  less,  while  the  Methodists  have  nine  such  stations  out  of 
twenty-seven,  and  the  Episcopalians  seven  such  stations  out  of 
fifteen,  and  the  Northern  Baptists  eleven  such  stations  out  of 
twenty-one,  and  the  Wesleyans  thirteen  out  of  twenty-two.  Al- 
though these  concrete  facts  have  not  been  in  mind  in  the  stations 
that  we  have  visited,  the  general  tendency  of  the  policy  pursued 
by  our  missions  in  China  has  been,  and  everj^here  we  have  met 
with  general  agreement  in  the  view  that,  without  abandoning  at 
all  our  purpose  of  further  extending  our  work  and  opening  new 
stations,  nevertheless  for  the  next  few  years  the  emphasis  should 
be  placed  on  intensive  development  of  oiir  present  stations  and 
the  territories  about  them.  In  carrying  out  this  plan  two  defi- 
nite propo.sals  are  made,  first  that  points  which  in  earlier  times 
might  have  been  urged  for  the  establishment  of  stations  manned 
by  foreign  missionaries  should  be  opened,  in  numbers  sufficient 
to  give  the  experiment  a fair  trial,  by  strong  Chinese,  developing 
the  work  as  a joint  undertaking  of  tlie  missions  and  the  Chinese 
church,  and  second,  the  enlargement  of  the  native  currency  ap- 
propriations for  the  missions,  granting  each  year  as  large  an 
amount  as  po.s.sible  toward  .Column  B of  the  e.stimates,  which 
calls  for  what  the  missions  need  and  could  use  at  once  in  the 
expansion  of  their  present  undertaking.s. 

This  plan  of  the  co-operative  occupation  of  new  centers  within 
the  bounds  of  our  existing  missions  by  qualified  Chinese  work- 
ers has  been  laid  before  the  Board  in  carefully  thought  out  form 
by  tlie  Shantung  IMission.  The  mission  lias  come  to  the  plan 
partly  through  the  consideration  of  the  want  and  opportunity 
of  its  field  and  partly  because  of  the  need  of  working  out  .some 
method  of  co-operation  which  will  hold  in  Christian  evangeliza- 
tion the  strong  young  leaders  of  the  church  who  need  a chance 
for  initiative  and  heavier  personal  re.sponsibility.  The  need  in 
Shantung  is  overpowering,  with  its  thirty  million  people  and 
eighty-one  out  of  one  hundred  and  sixteen  cities  without  any 
missionar\’  resident.  The  opportunity  is  equally  inviting.  In 
many  of  these  cities  there  are  now  large  pawnshops  for  sale.  The 
change  of  economic  conditions  and  the  imposition  of  more  equal 
taxes  have  made  the  pawn  houses  unjirofitable.  They  are  large 
stone  or  brick  buildings  which  can  be  easily  transformed  so  as 
to  provide  all  the  facilities  for  a large  institutional  work.  It 
Ls  estimated  that  five  thousand  dollars  will  suffice  either  to  pur- 
cha.se  and  transform  one  of  these  buildings  or  to  ei*ect  a new 
center  containing  auditorium,  chapel,  guest  rooms,  school  I’ooms 
for  day  and  night  .schools,  etc.,  etc.  Fiv^e  hundred  dollars  gold 
will  meet  the  running  expen.ses  per  annum  until,  as  is  hoped, 

435 


each  center  can  be  made  self-supporting  within  a few  years.  One 
of  these  centers  is  already  in  successful  operation.  The  mission 
desires  to  open  four  more  at  once  and  to  follow  these  if  the  plan 
is  successful  by  the  occupation  of  sixteen  more.  The  consider- 
ations put  forw^ard  in  behalf  of  the  plan  bj'  tho.se  w'ho  are  most 
deeply  interested  are  not  all  of  equal  value  but  token  together 
they  seem  to  make  a conclu.sive  argument. 

“First.  It  is  occupying  the  .strategic  centers.  For  the  vast 
population  of  each  county,  the  county  seat  is  l>ecoming  more  and 
more  the  commanding  political,  commercial,  educational,  and 
social  center.  Formerly  the  cities  have  been  most  difficult  of 
approach,  but  now  their  doors  are  thrown  wide  open,  so  that 
evangelistic  work  hereafter  must  not  be  .so  exclusively  in  country’ 
districts. 

“Second.  It  furni.shes  an  attractive  field  for  an  able  Chinese 
leader.ship.  As  in  all  times  and  countries,  large  Church  success 
awaits  a fully  equipped  leader.ship.  Here,  as  in  the  West,  high 
grade  leaders  are  not  satisfied  wdth  a pastorate  among  scattered 
country  churche.s,  but  are  attracted  to  the  citie.s.  With  churches 
developing  among  these  thickly  populated  countie.s,  the  man  in 
the  central  city  will,  without  the  office,  be  a veritable  metropoli- 
tan of  wide  and  commanding  influence.  We  have  some  .such 
men  ready  for  this  wmrk,  and  an  inspiring  program  will  doubt- 
less secure  all  that  are  needed. 

“Third.  This  plan  makes  prompt  use  of  available  resources 
and  looks  forward  to  a new'^  and  permanent  method  of  work. 

“Fourth.  This  plan  promises  Chinese  and  foreign  co-opera- 
tion instead  of  sepai*ation.  If  we  can  have  the  grace  and  vision 
to  accord  to  these  men  these  positions  of  evangelistic  promi- 
nence w'hile  retaining  a directing  influence,  it  will  be  ideal. 

“Fifth.  This  plan  is  calculated  to  eliminate  the  idea  that  a 
foreign  church  is  being  jjl'anted  throughout  China,  which  impres- 
.sion  is  a serious  draw'back.  Moreover  the  Chinese  church  it.self 
will  never  have  large  succe.ss  until  its  members  are  filled  with 
the  realization  that  this  is  an  enterprise  for  which  they  are  re- 
.sponsible.  This  is  a fundamental  truth;  now  is  the  psychologi- 
cal time;  and  we  think  the  above  is  the  method  for  turning  this 
re.sponsibility  over  to  them. 

“Sixth.  This  method  of  work  helps  to  make  worth  while  in 
an  evangelistic  wmy  the  large  amount  of  effort  and  money  put 
into  higher  education  in  Shantung.  It  furnishes  opening  for 
able  and  consecrated  graduates,  because  such  feel  drawn  towards 
the  influential  task  of  bearing  witness  for  Christ  in  city  centei-s 
where  the  men  wffio  are  shaping  the  destinies  of  China  go  and 
come. 

“Seventh.  Such  occupation  will  give  needed  prestige  to  the 
directly  evangelistic  w'ork  in  the  eyes  of  the  influential  classes 
both  in  and  out  of  the  church.  The  rapidly  increasing  promi- 
nence given  to  our  church  education  by  so  many  fine  plants,  and 
such  rapid  expansion,  with  the  turning  of  almost  all  college 

436 


graduates  to  the  more  profitable  work  of  teaching,  is  calculated 
to  misrepresent  our  missionary  object.  It  thus  appears  that,  to 
say  the  least,  we  need  the  prominence  of  this  city  enterprise  for 
the  balancing  up  of  the  several  departments  of  our  common 
work. 

“Eighth.  This  campaign  is  commended  by  its  plan  of  ap- 
proach. Bible  preaching  and  teaching,  is  to  be  supplemented  by 
lectures,  schools,  woman’s  work,  medical  work  and  Y.  M.  C.  A., 
thus  touching  many  different  points  of  approach  to  mind  and 
heart. 

“Ninth.  This  evangelistic  effort  promises  to  arrest  the  at- 
tention and  save  from  spiritual  bankruptcy  the  educated  classes, 
and  .stein  the  rising  tide  of  an  atheistic,  materialistic  philosophy 
of  life.  This  impending  bankruptcy  con.stitutes  the  greatest 
menace  to  the  future  of  China.  With  the  grip  of  the  old  re- 
ligions gone,  with  atheism  the  popular  form  of  educated  thought, 
and  agno.stic  literature  widely  read,  together  with  a more  or 
less  conscious  desire  of  the  educated  to  find  something  to  satisfy 
the  cravings  of  the  soul,  it  is  easy  to  see  that  a veritable  crisis 
has  come  in  the  religious  history  of  China.  Hence  the  wisdom 
and  urgency  of  the  above  program. 

“Tenth.  This  project  has  already  passed  tlie  theoretical  stage. 
We  have  two  .such  men  already  at  work  in  two  cities  with  splen- 
did results.  Tliey  are  men  who  could  command  much  larger 
salaries  elsewhere,  but  who  prefer  this  soul-winning  work  in 
these  cities,  especially  among  the  young  men  and  young  women 
.students.  In  view  of  the  above,  is  it  not  apparent  that  it  would 
be  hard  to  find  a Christian  appeal  combining  so  many  attractive 
and  impelling  considerations?” 

A single  special  gift  of  .®i2.’),n00  and  .^2„500  per  annum  for  five 
years  would  make  it  po.ssible  to  give  this  plan  a thorough  trial 
in  five  new  cities. 

The  other  matter,  the  need  of  larger  appi’opriations  for  the 
native  work  in  all  the  station.s,  is  even  more  generally  pre.ssing. 
Our  mission  stations  in  China  are  like  factories  running  at  only 
a fraction  of  their  full  capacity.  Obviously  it  is  more  important 
and  economical  to  take  up  the  margin  and  run  these  factories 
at  their  full  caj)acity  than  it  would  be  to  go  on  building  new  fac- 
tories. The  Board,  T think,  has  already  expressed  itself  clearly 
on  this  point.  But  there  is  one  aspect  of  the  matter  which  has 
not  be<Mi  se(*n  in  sufficient  clearness.  The  case  is  concretely 
sjtated  by  Dr.  Logan  in  a letter  which  he  sent  to  the  China  Coun- 
cil at  the  meeting  which  we  attended. 

“At  Mission  Meeting  this  summer  we  were  lamenting  the  fact 
that  it  is  harder  to  get  an  additional  first-class  Chinese  hel])er’s 
salary'  than  it  is  to  get  a foreigner  from  home.  Some  of  us 
believe  that  in  a good  many  cases  new  workers  are  asked  for 
from  the  U.  S.  to  do  work  that  could  be  done  by  .skilled  Chiue.se 
who  are  now  available  for  the  work  if  we  could  hold  them  by 
giving  salaries  that  would  be  fitting  for  them,  considering  their 
education  and  consequent  standing. 

437 


“It  occurred  to  me  that  if  the  Board  would  give  us  the  right 
to  place  in  the  Preferred  List  of  Workers  needed,  educated 

Chinese  who  could  fill  such  jjlaces  as it  would  be  a 

great  advantage.  It  seems  to  me  that  there  is  something  wrong 
with  our  policy  when  it  is  harder  to  get  the  salary  of  a Chinese 
on  the  field,  who  requires  a mwiest  allowance  and  quarters,  than 
it  is  to  get  a worker  from  home  who  is  an  expensive  luxury'  from 
most  standpoints  and  who  may  not  in  many  instances  able 
to  do  the  work  a first-class  Chinese  could  and"  would  do.  I .spoke 
to  Mr.  Cochran  about  this  and  asked  him  how  many  more  for- 
eign workers  they  would  need  at  Hwaiyuan  if  they  did  not  have 
the  good  trained  Chinese  they  have.  I think  he"  told  me  they 
would  need  half  as  many  more  foreigners  as  they  now  have  if 
they  did  not  have  the  qualifiecl  Chinese.  Theirs  is  the  most  ex- 
pensive work  in  the  whole  of  our  China  field  if  judged  from 
the  standpoint  of  tlie  Mex.  native  cla.ss  money  they  get,  and 
yet  I should  not  be  surprised  if  it  is  not  one  of  the  cheapest  in 
total  amount  of  money  spent  in  both  gold  and  Mex.,  because 
they  are  using  so  many  Chine.se  workers. 

“I  under.stand  other  missions,  notably  the  Northern  Metho- 
dists, use  relatively  few  foreigners;  the  proportion  of  the  Chin- 
ese to  foreigners  being  very  much  greater  than  it  is  in  our  mis- 
sions. 

“There  may  be  a better  way  than  the  one  I have  .suggested 
but  I firmly  believe  that  there  is  something  wrong  in  our  method 
when  there  is  no  way  now  given  us  whereby  we  may  have  the 
choice  between  an  additional  skilled  Chinese  and  a worker  from 
home.  I do  not  think  I am  overstating  it  when  I say  that  all  of 
us  know  that  the  chances  of  getting  an  additional  appropriation 
for  a needed  Chinese  worker  are  far  less  than  they  are  if  we 
ask  for  a new  worker  from  home,  even  though  the  latter,  if  sent, 
usually  means  a residence,  furloughs,  outfit,  and  later  perhaps 
ministerial  relief. 

“I  would  make  it  plain  that  there  are  many  ca.ses  when  it  is 
not  pos.sible  to  say  that  a trained  Chinese  would  take  the  place 
of  a trained  foreigner.  My  argument  is  for  the  cases  where  the 
Chinese  could  do  the  work  of  the  other.” 

Perhaps  it  is  not  necessary  to  draw  too  sharp  an  antagonism 
between  the  need  for  new  mi.ssionaries  and  the  need  for  enlarg- 
ed appropriations  for  the  native  work,  enabling  the  missions  to 
employ  more  Chinese  workers.  There  is  and  there  will  continue 
to  be  a great  need  for  more  missionaries  to  do  what  the  Chine.se 
are  not  as  yet  able  to  do,  but  I think  Dr.  Logan  is  entirely  right 
in  his  .suggestion  that  there  should  be  a closer  correllation  of 
the  requests  for  increased  native  work  appropriations  in  Column 
D,  and  the  reque.sts  for  the  appointment  of  new  missionaries.  It 
is  sometimes  argued  that  the  money  can  be  secured  for  the  sup- 
port of  new  mi.ssionaries  when  it  would  not  be  given  for  the 
increase  of  the  native  work,  and  it  is  time  that  there  are  times 
when  the  Board  is  unable  to  influence  donors  as  to  the  direction 

43S 


of  thefr  gifts.  But  a more  careful  effort  should  be  made  both  in 
the  China  Council  and  by  the  Board  to  secure  the  kind  of  re- 
enforcement  which  is  most  needed,  whether  missionaries  or  Chin- 
ese workers.  And  the  money  that  might  otherwise  be  used  in 
sending  out  a new  missionary  ought  to  be  used  instead  for  the 
increase  of  the  native  work  appropriations,  wherever  that 
strengthening^  is  seen  to  be  the  step  that  should  next  be  taken  in 
the  strengthening  of  the  work. 

We  are  far  behind  many  of  the  other  missions  in  China  in 
the  use  of  native  Chinese  agency  as  the  following  table  will  show: 

Chinese 

Missionaries  Workers 


All  Anglican  Missions  621  1428 

Presbyterian  Board  North  422  954 

All  Lutheran  Missions  385  958 

Methodist  Episcopal  276  1.397 

Northern  Baptist  159  266 

A.  B.  C.  F.  M 147  411 

Southern  Presbyterian  132  1.59 

English  Baptist  105  191 

English  Presbyterian  78  292 

T'.  F.  Ch)irch  of  Scotland  63  213 

Irish  Presbyterian  43  235 

Reformed  Church  in  America  23  205 

Our  Board’s  Missions  in  India  191  1208 


Tlie  motive.s  lying  behind  our  conservative  employment  of 
Cliinese  workers  with  foreign  funds  have  been  the  desire  to 
h.asten  self-support  and  the  fear  of  the  evils  of  a lavish  use  of 
money.  These  have  been  right  motives  and  it  is  very  possible 
tliat  as  far  as  numbers  are  concernetl  our  missions  have  pur- 
sued a wi.ser  policy  than  some  of  those  which  have  been  freer 
in  tlie  employment  of  Chinese  agents.  It  is  perhaps  not  so  much 
a question  of  quantity  as  of  quality,  and  the  missions  ought  cer- 
tainly to  be  enabled  either  by  a redistribution  of  their  present 
appropriations  or  by  additional  appropriations  to  make  use, 
wlierever  neces.sar\^,  of  a better  grade  of  native  agents,  who  may 
be  expected  the  more  speedily  to  bring  the  work  which  they  are 
carri’ing  on  to  self-support.  On  tlie  other  hand  it  would  be 
quite  easy  for  us  both  to  employ  a number  of  the.se  men  and  to 
increa.se  the  numlier  of  ordinari'  helpers  and  find  ourselves  fur- 
ther away  from  self-support  than  ever.  It  is  not  so  much  a 
matter  of  general  policy  as  it  is  of  judicious,  continuous  man- 
agement in  the  right  way  of  concrete  situations.  And  this  is 
true  as  a rule  of  our  dealing  with  the  whole  problem  of  self- 
support.  General  regulations  providing  that  Board  support  shall 
dimini.sh  and  church  support  increase  by  fixed  ratios  are  not 
without  value,  but  they  are  .sure  to  be  inelfective  unless  concrete- 
ly applied,  and  unless  the  application  is  carried  through  with 
per.sisteiice.  At  its  last  annual  meeting  the  North  China  Mission 
attempted  to  combine  the  advantages  of  a general  rule  with  a 
concrete  application  in  a plan  agreed  upon  by  the  Peking  pres- 
bytery by  which  each  church  having  100  or  more  members  must 

439 


provide  at  least  one-fourth  of  the  pastor’s  salarj';  each  church 
with  200  members  or  more  provides  at  least  one-half  the  sal- 
ary; each  church  with  20  or  more  members  provides  at  least 
three-fourths  of  the  salary;  and  each  church  with  800  or  more 
members  provides  the  entire  salary.  The  estimates  for  the  com- 
ing year  are  made  out  on  this  basis. 

There  is  certainly  need  in  our  missions  in  China  of  some  ac- 
celeration or  revision  of  our  policies  in  the  matter  of  self-.sup- 
port.  According  to  the  statistics  and  the  China  Council  minutes 
for  1914,  out  of  174  organized  churches  27  were  reported  as  en- 
tirely self-supporting.  It  is  clear  that  the  statistics  on  this 
point  both  as  a whole  and  in  detail  were  unreliable,  but  they 
indicated  that  three  of  the  seven  missions  re])orting  seventy-two 
organized  churches  had  none  that  were  self-supporting,  2 report- 
ing 7 churches  had  2 that  were  self-supporting,  one  in  each  mi.s- 
sion.  The  total  number  of  communicants  was  31,080,  or  an 
average  membership  in  the  organized  churches,  taking  account 
also  of  the  unorganized  groups,  of  over  100. 

One  difficulty  in  the  path  of  self-support  is  the  continued 
sense  of  dependence  of  the  churches  on  the  mis.sions  in.stead  of 
on  their  own  presbyteries  and  synods.  This  is  very  natural.  The 
mission  agencies  are  continuous,  close  at  hand,  and  efficient.  The 
presbyterial  meetings  are  occasional,  remote,  and  without  re- 
sources. The  self-supporting  churches  are  the  backbone  of  the 
presbytery.  When,  accordingly,  they  find  it  difficult  to  main- 
tain self-support  through  failures  of  crops  or  removal  of  mem- 
bers, they  naturally  turn  to  the  mission  .station  for  at  least  tem- 
porary relief.  The  Weihsien  station  has  been  compelled  to  aid 
a number  of  churches  in  this  way  which,  a few  years  ago,  were 
reported  as  self-'supporting  organizations.  Perhaps  there  is  no 
escape  at  present  from  situations  like  this,  but  if  an  escape  is 
ever  to  be  found  it  will  be  in  the  line  of  the  disposition,  now  so 
strong  in  our  missions  in  China,  to  recognize  and  foster  the 
authority  and  responsibility  of  the  Chinese  church  as  a corpor- 
ate body.  Three  years  ago  the  Shantung  Mission  constituted 
in  each  of  its  stations  joint  committees  consi.sting  of  equal  num- 
bers of  Chinese  and  foreigners,  the  Chinese  to  be  chosen  by  Chin- 
ese bodies  who  should  decide  upon  the  expenditure  of  all  the 
funds  available  for  evangelistic,  educational  and  medical  work. 
A similar  plan  has  prevailed  for  some  years  in  .Japan  in  the 
administration  of  all  evangelistic  work  carried  on  by  the  co-op- 
erating missions  within  the  bounds  of  the  pre.sbyteries  of  the 
Church  of  Christ.  The  plan  has  worked  admirably.  The  Chin- 
ese members  have  exerted  a pressure  both  in  the  evangelistic  and 
ediicational  work  in  advancing  self-support  which  the  mission- 
aries could  not  have  exerted.  Such  a plan  is  in  full  accord  with 
the  Manual  of  the  Board  whose  provisions,  indeed,  are  more 
far  reaching  and  provide  that  the  conference  and  co-operation 
supplied  by  such  committees  should  go  farther  back  and  have  to 
do  not  only  with  the  expenditure  of  available  funds  but  with 

440 


the  determination  of  the  estimates  and  the  fixing  of  the  propor- 
tions of  the  estimates  to  be  asked  from  the  native  churches  and 
from  the  church  in  America. 

The  establishmeut  of  such  co-operative  committees  and  the 
absolute  independence  of  the  Chinese  church  as  an  ecclesiastical 
organization,  which  has  been  already  secured,  provide  in  theory 
the  full  measure  of  authoritv*,  but  the  far  deeper  and  more  dif- 
ficult problems  are  how  to  qiialify  and  iudiice  the  church  to  ex- 
ercise its  authority  and  discharge  its  own  responsibility  and 
how  to  create  and  sustain  relationships  of  co-operation  and  miu- 
isti*y  between  the  missionaries  and  the  Chinese  Christians  which 
shall  be,  not  merely  paper  adjustments,  desirable  as  these  are, 
but  relationships  of  living  love  and  spiritual  service.  No  for- 
mal agreements  can  solve  these  problems.  They  can  only  be 
solved  by  the  cultivation  of  personal  spiritual  intimacies  be- 
tween individuahs,  by  actual  daily  planning  and  working  togeth- 
er on  terms  of  equality,  by  the  consolidating  pressure  of  an  eag- 
er, onward  movement. 

A matter  whicli  should  be  spoken  of  because  the  example  of 
the  Chinese  church  with  regard  to  it  is  far  reaching  is  the  mat- 
ter of  Sabbath  observance.  The  missions  in  Korea  and  Siam 
have  held  up  before  the  native  churches  the  high  old-fashioned 
ideas  on  this  subject  in  which  some  of  us  at  home  also  still  be- 
lieve. In  China,  however,  the  ideas  of  the  churches,  especially 
tho.se  resulting  from  the  work  of  British  and  European  mis- 
sionaries and  not  a few  of  our  American  missions  as  well,  are 
much  .slacker,  and  we  found  in  Siam,  where  the  Chinese  immi- 
gration is  steadily  increasing  and  where  a number  of  Chine.se 
have  come  into  tlie  cliurch,  a disposition  to  deal  leniently  with 
their  keeping  their  shops  o])en  and  continuing  their  ordinary 
business  on  Sunday,  while  yet  it  was  inevitable  that  their  ex- 
ample would  affect  tlie  practices  of  tlie  Siamese  churches.  Some 
of  the  mi.ssionaries,  however,  did  not  well  see  how  they  could 
do  otherwise  in  view  of  wliat  they  understood  to  be  the  general 
])ractice.s  in  China.  At  the  meeting  of  tlie  China  Council  Ave 
asked  for  expre.ssions  of  opinion  from  tlie  representative  of  each 
mis.sion  as  to  the  jiractices  of  the  Christians.  It  was  conceded 
by  all  that  the  observance  of  Sunday  as  a day  of  re.st  was  much 
too  lax.  The  duty  of  church  attendance  was  generally  recog- 
niziMl,  but  when  that  had  betm  discharged  it  was  admitted  that 
while  in  the  cities  many  of  the  Chri.stian  shopkeepers  closed 
their  shojis,  in  tlie  villages  and  in  the  country  most  shopkeepers 
and  farmers,  and  the  farmers  esjiecially  in  time  of  harvest,  went 
on  with  their  ordinary  work.  It  was  the  judgment  of  the  Coun- 
cil that  while  every  concession  must  be  made  to  the  need  and 
ignorance  of  the  jieople,  and  to  the  absence  of  profitable  waj’s  of 
spending  the  ]iart  of  the  day  not  used  in  Avor.ship,  there  Avas 
nevertheless  need  for  a steady  jiressure  in  behalf  of  a more  re- 
ligious use  of  Sunday,  and  the  Council  deprecated  the  idea  that 
pre.sent  practices  in  China  should  be  made  the  occasion  in  Siam 

441 


or  elsewhere  for  a more  careless  Sabbath  observance.  Wholly 
apart  from  Sabbath  observance  for  its  own  sake,  it  may  be  said 
that  the  church  in  China,  just  like  the  church  in  many  other 
lands,  needs  a few  .stiff  .self-disciplining  practices  to  fortify  the 
conceptions  of  duty  and  principle.  The  antinomian  tendency' 
per.sists  in  human  nature  and  especially  in  mission  fields  wheie 
the  freedom  of  the  Gospel  easily  becomes  an  occasion  of  laxity 
in  the  reaction  of  converts  from  the  legalisms  of  the  old  relig- 
ions. And  churches  and  men  every  where  are  better  off  for  the 
self-imposition  of  some  clean  law.s,  .‘jpecially  those  laws  of  the 
Decalogue,  which  the  go.spel  was  meant  to  con.secrate  and  not 
to  destroy. 

Another  of  the  evangelistic  problems  in  China  is  the  retention 
and  u.se  by  the  church  of  Christian  Chinese  students  who  have 
.studied  abroad  and  returned  to  China.  These  .students  both 
ChristiaTi  and  non-Chri.stian  present  to  the  church  and  to  China 
a great  opportunity  and  a great  peril.  Scores  of  them  have  not 
been  able  to  find  employment  and  are  in  danger  of  drifting 
away  into  a discontented  radicalism.  The  larger  number  are 
finding  footing  in  society  and  are  supplying  the  be.st  leaders  in 
the  new  life  of  the  nation  but  they  are  finding  it  difficult  to 
adjust  themselves  to  the  church.  Most  of  the  preachers  are  not 
(pialified  to  minister  to  the  needs  of  this  cla.ss  and  while  it  may 
be  truthfully  said  that  these  Chri.stian  .students  should  not  a.sk 
to  be  ministered  to  but  should  throw  their  lives  in  to  the  work 
of  the  churches  for  what  they  are  able  to  contribute,  this  is  a 
counsel  too  high  for  most  of  them.  There  ought  to  be  special 
effort  in  even'  community  where  these  students  gather  or  where 
any  of  them,  however  few,  are  found,  to  tie  them  to  the  church 
by  giving  them  work  to  do.  They  will  not  i>e  held  to  Christian- 
ity’ by  any  other  agency  than  the  church.  At  pre.sent  in  many 
communities  they  have  little  gatherings  of  their  own  for  social 
conference  or  for  Christian  worship.  Those  missionaries  who 
are  adapted  to  mingling  with  such  groups  should  cultivate  every 
opportunity  of  doing  so.  Out  of  this  body  of  students  many 
of  the  great  Christian  leaders  should  come. 

The  supreme  problem  of  all  our  work  in  China  is  how  to  bend 
it  all  more  singly  and  more  richly  to  the  accomplishment  of  our 
great  evangelistic  aim.  Thanks  to  the  beipiest  of  Mr.  Kennedy 
and  to  the  China  Emergency  Campaigir  we  have  immensely  im- 
proved the  equipment  of  our  work.  Much  more  is  needed  as 
the  China  Council’s  property  lists  show,  but  I was  not  prepared 
for  the  revelation  which  our  visit  gave  of  the  amazing  improve- 
ment of  our  mission  plant.  What  we  need  now  and  what  all 
the  mission  work  in  China  needs  is  the  innishiug  of  a deeper, 
simpler,  more  direct  tide  of  evangelistic  service.  There  is  danger 
that  the  mechanism  will  over-weigh  the  energy.  Some  do  not 
believe  this  but  I do  not  see  how  anyone  can  turn  from  the 
atmosphere  of  the  New  Testament  and  the  Pauline  Epistles  to 
the  missionary  enterprise  in  China  today  without  feeling  that 

442 


the  great  present  need  here  is  life  that  will  throw  itself  out 
through  all  the  agencies  that  have  been  prepared  for  it  and  sway 
them  as  the  wind  sways  the  reed  by  the  powers  of  the  new 
creating  Spirit  of  God. 

II.  Union  Institutions  of  Higher  Education. 

In  accordance  with  its  policy  and  the  policy  of  our  church, 
the  Board  has  joined  heartily  wherever  it  has  been  possible,  by 
co-operation  with  other  churches,  in  the  unifying  of  missionary 
education.  We  are  sharing  now  in  the  work  of  three  universi- 
ties, Peking,  Shantung,  and  Nanking;  three  colleges,  Hangchow 
college,  and  the  union  colleges  for  women  in  Nanking  and 
Peking;  five  theological  schools  in  Peking,  Shantung,  Nanking, 
Canton  and  Changsha ; and  in  a number  of  schools  of  other 
grades  including  half  a dozen  training  schools  for  Bible  men 
and  women.  Many  of  these  institutions  present  important  que.s- 
tions  which  will  have  to  be  taken  up  in  detail.  Without  report- 
ing upon  these  here,  it  seems  wise  to  suggest  instead  some  ol 
the  general  questions  arising  from  union  educational  work. 

1.  It  seems  clear  from  experience  that  union  in  higher  edu- 
cational work  does  not  i-educe  expense.  If  eacli  separate  denomi- 
nation undertook  to  provide  single-handed  the  .same  kind  of 
institution  which  it  joins  in  ])roviding  co-o])eratively  it  would 
of  cour.se  have  to  meet  a far  larger  expense  than  its  share  of 
the  union  institution.  But  as  a matter  of  fact  what  most 
denominations  would  try  to  provide  separately  is  less  than  the 
union  institution  and  .sometimes  le.ss  even  than  their  share  in 
the  union  institution  soon  re(|nires.  Por  the  united  effort 
attempts  what  the  sej)arate  etibrt  would  not  attempt  and  the 
obligation  of  the  union  draws  tin*  different  i)arlicipants  on  to  an 
expense  on  its  account  to  wliich  they  would  not  have  felt  so 
necessitously  constrained  if  tliey  liad  not  incnn-ed  the  associated 
obligation.  Tlie  union  .schemes  are  not  only  financially  more 
expensive,  they  demand  also  an  amoimt  of  time  in  conferences 
and  managers’  meetings  and  in  the  solution  of  the  new  ])rob- 
lems  which  they  create  which  make  them  admini.stratively  a 
heavier  burden  than  i)urely  denominational  institutions.  These 
are  by  no  means  arguments  against  the  establi.shment  of  the 
union  institutions.  They  ought  to  be  establi.sbed  and  they  can 
only  be  establishe<l  in  a union  way  and  the  more  adequate  edu- 
cational ]»rogi-ams  which  they  inevitably  project  are  programs 
which  should  be  projected  and  to  which  it  is  well  that  the  exist- 
ence of  the  institution  should  act  as  a leverage  to  lift  the  co- 
operating agencie.s.  Attention  should  be  called  to  the.se  facts, 
however,  lest  their  concealment  and  the  argument  of  economy 
in  ladialf  of  the  union  institutions  should  .sooner  or  later  react 
as  an  argument  again.st  them.  These  institutions  are  wise  and 
neces.sary  but  we  should  enter  tlnun  without  delusions  which 
lime  will  destroy. 

2.  The  greatly  increa.s(‘d  exjxmditure  involved  in  the  union 
institutions  confronts  us  with  the  i)roblem  of  how  to  meet  this 

443 


enlarged  obligation  without  interference  with  Ihe  regular  work 
of  the  missions.  Money  must  not  be  taken  from  that  work  to 
supply  the  increased  needs  of  the  union  schools  nor  should 
that  work  be  left  wdth  unrefluced,  but  at  the  same  time  unin- 
creased, appropriations  while  money  is  poured  into  the  academic 
and  medical  departments  of  the  union  universities.  To  make 
the  matter  .specific,  in  1913  and  1914  our  appropriation  to  the 
medical  college  and  hospital  of  the  Shantung  union  universitj* 
was  fl329  Mex.,  the  next  year  we  w ere  askwl  to  increase  this 
to  .|3,25G  Mex.,  the  next  year  to  §!4,934  Mex.,  and  now  for 
1916-17  are  asked  to  provide  .$7,104  Mex.  as  a beautiful  new' 
hospital  building  has  been  provided  by  the  Engli.sh  Baptist  Mis- 
.sion  and  the  school  is  only  now'  able  to  begin  full  operation.  The 
Board  has  not  been  able  to  provide  the.se  incr-ea.ses  and  either 
the  hospital  would  have  stood  unu.sed  or  the  union  have  fallen 
apart,  unless  special  gifts  had  been  secured  for  the  curi'eut  year. 
But  wdiat  must  be  faced  is  not  the  emergenc}'  of  a .single  year 
but  a i)ermanent  increase  of  appropriation.  As  soon  as  the  Arts 
Department  is  removed  to  T.sinanfu  there  will  l)e  a veiw'  large 
increase  of  annual  expenditure  ou  its  account.  The  certainty 
that  the.se  obligations  are  involved  in  these  union  projects  should 
be  faced  w'hen  tlie  projects  are  entered  and  a plan  of  meeting  them 
should  be  clearly  in  mind  from  the  out.set.  We  should  do  uow, 
in  the  ca.se  of  these  obligations  in  Shantung  and  similar  obliga- 
tions which  will  arise  in  Peking  and  elsew'here,  what  has  been 
already  done  in  the  case  of  the  Nanking  University  and  Gin  Ling 
College.  The  regular  ai)propriations  of  the  Board  should  be 
iucrea.sed  by  the  amount  of  our  assumed  obligations.  In  the 
case  of  Nanking  and  Gin  Ling  this  obligation  was  defined  and 
fixed.  The  .same  should  be  done,  if  possible,  in  the  case  of  every 
other  union  institution  but  where  it  is  not  possible  the  con- 
tingencies must  be  calculated  and  clearly  faced  from  the  begin- 
ning. 

I think  that  the  China  mis.sious  w'ill  justly  feel  that  they 
have  grounds  for  complaint,  how'ever,  if  our  obligations  in  the 
case  of  these  union  institutions  are  jcared  for  in  this  w'ay  w'hile 
our  evangelistic  w'ork  is  left  without  the  increment  which  it 
needs.  If  the  Board  could  make  a permanent  addition  to  the 
appropriations  for  China  of  .$20,000  or  $25,000  gold  per  annum, 
I think  the  missions  could  be  lifted  quite  out  of  their  pi-esent 
perplexities  and  enabled  to  meet  all  our  obligations  on  account 
of  the  present  union  pi'ojects  and  also  of  our  evangelistic  work 
in  its  more  pressing  demands. 

3.  In  the  development  of  universities  and  colleges  the  ques- 
tion of  the  extent  to  w'hich  Itechnical  departments  and  profes- 
sional scientific  courses,  especially  graduate  courses,  should  be 
provided,  is  sure  to  arise.  It  has  ah'eady  arisen  in  the  earliest 
stages  of  the  development  of  the  Peking  Union  University  as 
indicated  in  the  following  action  of  the  North  China  District 
Committee  of  the  London  Missionary  Society: 

444 


“The  following  statement  of  the  objects  and  scope  of  this 
University  is  intended  to  inform  the  Board  of  the  views  of  the 
D.  C.  in  regard  to  these  matters  and  of  the  limitations  we  would 
set  to  our  participation  in  the  University,  and  also  to  guide  our 
sub-committee  in  their  discussions  with  the  other  Societies  con- 
cerned in  the  negotiations. 

“The  main  departments  of  a Christian  University,  and  those 
for  which  the  Missionaiw  Societies  should  provide,  are  the  depart- 
ments of  TheologA'  and  Liberal  Arts.  In  these  departments 
there  is  little  danger  of  competition  with  government  institu- 
tions whose  tendency  is  to  emphasize  profe.ssional  and  techni- 
cal courses,  whilst  we  may  hope  to  make  adequate  provision 
for  these  departments  without  overburdening  the  Societies’ 
financial  resources.  These  are  moreover,  the  departments  of 
greatest  utility  in  the  service  of  the  Christian  community.  They 
are  necessaiw  in  the  preparation  of  men  for  the  wider  forms  of 
Chi'istian  ministiw  and  in  the  literary  expression  of  Christian 
thought,  which  must  play  a very  large  part  in  the  presentation 
of  Chi'istian  truth  to  the  Chinese,  and  in  helping  the  Christian 
community  in  China  to  realize  the  riches  of  its  intellectual  and 
spiritual  inheritance. 

“We  woubl,  therefore,  deprecate  any  direct  participation  by 
the  Society  in  branches  of  university  education  such  as  Applied 
Science,  Engineering,  and  Agriculture,  which  are  extremel}’’ 
expensive  in  themselves,  which  are  of  little  service  in  Christian 
work,  and  in  which  it  would  be  impos.sible  ultimately  to  com- 
pete with  the  Government  Universities  whose  work  we  should 
be  duplicating.  We  should  be  reluctant  to  enter  any  scheme 
which  put  resj)onsibility  for  such  departments  upon  Missionary 
Societies,  though  there  would  be  no  objection  if  these  depaid- 
nients  were  entirely  provided  for  and  staffed  from  .special  funds 
given  for  the  ])urpo.se.  In  these  directions  it  would  seem  better 
to  7iiake  use  of  the  Government  colleges,  and  to  exercise  Chris- 
tian influence  within  them  by  Y.  M.  C.  A.  work  and  bj"  ho.stels. 

“In  view  of  the  present  inteniational  situation  and  of  the 
greut  evangelistic  opixwtnnity  with  the  heavy  re.sponsibility 
which  it  imposes  upon  ns,  it  is  necessaiw  to  keep  expenditnrf 
on  higher  education  as  low  as  is  consistent  with  our  obligations 
to  the  Union,  and  with  efliciency  in  the  essential  departments  of 
the  work.” 

This  action  of  the  District  Committee  had  been  submitted  to 
the  Board  of  the  London  Mi.ssionary  Society  but  had  not  yet 
been  acted  on.i  It  is  perhaps  a,  question  which  cannot  be 
answered  in  advance  either  one  way  or  the  other  with  any 
assurance  that  the  an.swer  will  not  have  to  be  revised.  Tech- 
nical e<lucation  is  the  most  expensive  kind  of  education  to  pro- 
vide and  it  is  not  improbable  that  in  China,  as  in  .lapan,  even 
if  the  Japanese  Christian  University  should  be  established,  mis- 
.sions  ^\■ill  find  it  better  to  confine  their  energies  to  providing 
other  forms  of  education  than  advanced  and  highly  specialized 

445 


scientific  courses.  On  the  other  hand  if  it  should  seem  neces- 
sary for  the  institutions  estahlishe<l  by  the  missions  in  China 
to  engage  in  such  work,  might  it  not  he  possible  for  them  to 
unite  in  some  co-operative  scheme  l»y  whicli  each  Christian  uni- 
versity would  undertake  to  provide  some  one  branch  so  that 
students  desiring  to  specialize  in  tliat  depar-tment  might  go  to 
that  particular  institution.  Happily  there  is  no  need  of  haste 
in  deciding  these  questions.  The  qualitj'  of  what  we  actually 
do  is  more  important  than  the  quantity  of  what  we  talk  of 
doing.  What  Dr.  Hawks  Pott  said  in  his  presidential  address 
at  the  last  annual  meeting  of  the  Advisory  Council  of  the  Edu- 
cational Association  of  China,  needs  to  be  kept  in  mind  not 
only  with  regard  to  missionary  education  but  also  with  refer- 
ence to  all  our  points  of  contact  with  the  national  life  and  the 
governmental  policies  of  the  lands  in  which  we  are  at  work: 
“There  is  no  need,”  said  he,  “for  crying  out  that  we  must  make 
all  the  haste  possible  and  that  unless  we  do  something  within 
the  next  five  or  ten  years  we  will  not  have  the  opportunity. 
We  have  the  time  to  develop  slowly  and  to  build  strong  founda- 
tions, and  we  need  not  be  in  a state  of  panic  and  feel  that  unless 
we  attain  something  very  big  suddenly  we  are  going  to  be  elimi- 
nated and  entirely  wiped  out.  I believe  that  for  many  years 
to  come  the  Christian  School  in  China,  whether  .small  or  large, 
will  be  of  very  great  value  and  the  teachers  in  the  school  will 
find  that  they  have  still  open  before  them  great  doors  of  use- 
fulne.s>s.  If  we  plan  in  the  .spirit  of  panic,  thinking  we  have  got 
to  do  evervthing  in  the  next  five  or  ten  years,  we  are  apt  to  be 
hurried  into  .schemes  or  plans  that  may  prove  to  be  unwise, 
but  if  our  main  endeavor  is  to  build  strong  foundations  and 
do  our  work  efficiently,  and  quietly,  then  I think  we  will  do  it 
with  the  best  results. 

“I  feel  sure,  and  I think  all  of  us  feel  in  the  same  way,  that 
the  Chinese  Government  is  not  going  to  look  upon  missionary 
educational  work  as  being  something  that  is  .set  up  in  the  spirit 
of  rivalry;  that  there  is  going  to  be  nothing,  or  very  little  in  the 
nature  of  competition.  The  Chinese  Government  is  going  to  wel- 
come ever\dhing  that  is  done  here  in  China  that  is  done  well, 
and  that  is  of  assistance  in  this  great  task  of  providing  educa- 
tion for  the  children  of  this  country,  and  so  it  seems  to  me  that 
we  should  be  looking  forward  in  the  spirit  of  great  hopefulness 
toward  the  future,  realizing  how  God  is  giving  us  this  great 
means  to  help  in  transforming  the  life  of  China.  Through  our 
schools  and  colleges  we  have  the  opportunity  of  helping  to 
develop  Christian  character  in  our  students  and  of  produc- 
ing men  and  women  who  will  be  of  real  service  to  their  country. 
The  tv\"o  things  must  work  together  it  seems  to  me.  They  should 
be  the  ideals  of  education,  especially  of  our  missionary  educa- 
tion ; the  forming  of  a Christlike  character  in  our  students  and 
the  training  of  those  who  are  to  be  of  service  in  the  Church,  in 
the  State,  in  educational  work  and  in  industrial  life.  If  they 

446 


are  Ohristlike,  if  they  have  Christian  characters,  then  they  must 
be  of  service  to  others.  If  we  keep  these  two  ideals  before  our- 
selves, as  the  aims  in  our  work,- — producing  men  and  women 
of  Christian  character,  men  and  women  who  will  lead  lives  of 
active  Christian  service  for  their  country, — then  it  seems  to  me 
this  great  work  in  which  we  are  taking  part  will  be  sure  to  be 
blessed  of  God.” 

4.  The  problem  of  the  economic  relationship  of  the  product 
of  our  schools  to  the  ability  and  readiness  of  Chinese  society  to 
absorb  that  product  is  one  of  the  mo.st  interesting  and  perplex- 
ing problems  of  education  in  the  Far  East.  The  ideal  of  purely 
cultural  education  may  be  said  to  be  iinknown  in  Japan  and 
China.  The  only  educational  motive  is  utilitarian.  It  may  be 
utilitarian  in  a rather  spiritualistic  sense,  in  the  interest  of 
Christian  service,  but  the  bread  and  butter  consideration  is 
ever  present  and  the  moment  the  line  is  cro.ssed  between  the  , 
amount  and  quality  of  the  school’s  product  on  one  side,  and  the 
ability  of  that  product  to  find  bread  and  butter  employment  in 
the  exi.sting  economic  and  social  conditions  in  the  community,  on 
tlie  other  side,  and  when  the  latter  is  unequal  to  the  former  or 
dislocated  from  it  in  any  way,  that  moment  a set  of  difficulties 
appears  which  we  scarcely  know  in  our  educational  institutions 
in  America.  In  our  new  and  unformed  land  everjJhing  is  still 
loose  and  free  but  here  in  the  East  all  the  slack  was  taken  up 
long  ago.  The  economic  tissues  of  society  are  drawm  taut. 
Men  seek  an  education  and  work  for  it  and  their  families  mort- 
gage their  property  so  that  they  can  get  it,  with  the  economic 
end  always  in  view,  even  at  the  background  of  a true  altrujstic 
sq)irit.  For  years  many  of  onr  institutions  have  educated  for 
the  church.  The  ml.s.sions  were  the  church.  They  themselves 
made  the  demand  and  furnished  the  supply.  So  long  as  their 
demand  plus  the  demand  of  society  exceeded  the  supply,  all  was 
well,  but  when  a time  comes  that  the  missions  and  native  church 
cannot  absorb  the  supply  and  the  balance  is  not  taken  up  by 
society,  then  tlien*  comes  just  such  a startling  denouement  as 
the  strike  in  the  Arts  College  of  the  Shantung  Universitj'  at 
Weihsien,  at  the  back  of  which  lay  the  fact  that  a large  part 
of  the  graduating  class  of  last  year  was  unable  to  find  employ- 
with  the  result  that  many  of  the  undergraduates  in  fear  of  similar 
disaster  saw  a chance  both  to  economize  and  to  save  their  faces 
by  a rehelliou  that  terminated  their  college  career.  The  lesson 
is  that  everyone  of  oni-  institutions  in  China  must  be  studA'ing 
constantly  its  social  and  economic  environment  to  make  sure 
that  it  is  not  doing  a work  that  will  be  frustrated  and  waste. 

It  is  of  cour.se  true  that  the  institutions  should  lead  and  recreate 
society  but  the  task  is  full  of  difficulty.  If  they  go  too  far 
ahead  society  will  simply  eschew  their  idealism  as  economically 
futile.  If,  on  the  other  hand,  they  surrender  wholly  to  society, 
they  forfeit  their  mission  and  simply  confirm,  as  some  institu- 
tions have  done,  unfortunate  tendencies  whose  future  reactions 
may  be  fatal  to  the  institutions  that  fostered  them. 

447 


5.  It  is  the  economic  relation  of  the  teaching  of  English  to 
this  problem  of  supply  and  demand  in  e<lucation  in  China  which 
probably  explains  the  triumph  of  English  in  most  of  the  higher 
mission  schools  in  Cliina,  wliere  not  only  is  English  taught,  but 
where  the  education  itself  is  given  in  English.  The  teaching 
of  English  and  still  more  teaching  in  English  must  be  viewe^l 
not  only  as  an  economic  but  also  as  a sociological  and  as  an 
educational  question.  In  these  last  two  aspects  Dr.  Hawks 
Pott,  whose  college  in  Shanghai  is  one  of  the  best  illustrations 
of  the  success  of  an  Aitglo<diinese  school  (where  a little  more 
than  half  the  teaching  is  in  English  in  the  Middle  Schrml  and 
a great  deal  more  than  half  in  the  College)  uses  language  which 
seems  to  concede  that  sociologically  and  educationally  the  sys- 
tem of  giving  China  an  education  by  means  of  the  English  lan- 
guage is  not  satisfactory.  (1)  Sociologically.  Dr.  Hawks  Pott 
recognizes  that  the  Chinese  authorities  are  much  perturbed  over 
the  fact  that  English  educated,  students  have  so  little  knowledge 
of  their  own  language  and  literature  and  are  cut  off  from 
the  deepest  sympathy  and  understanding  of  their  own  people  and 
lack  that  rootage  in  Chinese  life  and  historj'  which  alone  can 
fit  them  to  build  the  new  China.  “The  futur-e  of  China.”  he  says, 
“depends  upon  her  building  Avisely  upon  the  past.  If  she  should 
cut  herself  off  completely  from  her  old  ethical  and  social  ideahs, 
the  result  will  be  ruin  and  chaos.  It  cannot  be  too  sti*ongly 
emphasized  that  as  the  man  must  be  the  development  of  the  child, 
so  the  life  of  a nation  must  be  a growth  from  its  past.  We 
have  already  .seen  in  China  some  of  the  disastrous  results  which 
come  of  an  attempt  to  begin  everything  de  noAm.  The  Chinese 
student  must  hold  fast  to  what  was  true  and  of  Amlue  in  the  old 
learning,  and  must  relate  it  to  his  new  conceptions  and  new 
points  of  view.  He  must  form  the  synthesis.  A Chinese  out  of 
sympathy  with  the  genius  and  spiidt  of  his  own  people  Avill  neAer 
be  a Avise  leadei'  in  the  paths  of  progress.”  (2i  Educationally. 
“A  further  practical  consideration,”  .says  Dr.  Hawks  Pott,  “is 
that  students  through  the  medium  of  English  should  be  able  to 
translate  their  knowledge  into  Chine.se.  This  is  not  the  case 
at  present.  At  times  I haAe  invited  students,  who  have  studied 
abroad,  to  deliA^er  a lecture  before  one  of  the  college  societies. 
As  a rule  they  prefer  to  talk  in  English  and  give  as  their  rea- 
son that  they  they  do  not  know  how  to  express  their  thoughts  in 
Chinese.  If  they  attempt  to  speak  in  Chinese,  they  are  frequent- 
ly obliged  to  make  use  of  foreign  words  and  phrases  to  make 
their  meaning  clear.  This  ought  not  to  be  so.  None  of  us  belieA  e 
that  higher  ediication  in  China  will  always  be  given  in  a foreign 
language.  If  Westeim  knowledge  is  to  become  indigenous,  and 
cease  to  be  an  exotic,  it  must  be  spread  in  the  language  of  the 
people  , . . A stigma  rests  upon  mission  institutions  at  present 
for  the  poor  results  in  producing  a good  knowledge  of  Chinese. 
Christian  students  as  a whole  are  far  below  non-Christian  stu- 
dents in  their  attainments  in  Chinese.  We  must  strive  to  rec- 

448 


tify  this  if  we  wish  our  institutions  to  exert  the  greatest  influ- 
ence for  good.” 

It  is  the  pecuniary  value  of  English  which  causes  the  demand 
for  it  and,  so  to  speak,  enables  the  mission  schools  which  give 
.it  to  market  their  product.  Some  of  the  schools  which  are  fol- 
lowing this  course  frankly  say  that  they  hope  that  the  market 
will  soon  be  overstocked  and  that  then  a more  wholesome  demand 
will  enable  them  to  do  the  far  more  satisfactory  work  of  train- 
ing Chinese  in  their  own  language  and  in  the  Christianized 
atmosphere  of  their  own  life,  for  service,  not  in  open  ports  nor 
on  the  fringe  where  Chinese  life  and  the  life  of  the  West  meet, 
but  in  the  depths  and  breadths  of  the  real  life  of  China.  Ulti- 
mately, of  course,  all  admit  that  the  Chinese  people  must  be 
educated  in  their  own  language.  It  is  in  their  own  language 
that  the  government  schools  are  doing  the  work  now.  They 
teach  English  but  they  do  their  work  in  Chine.se.  Some  day 
the  mission  schools,  with  perhaps  a few  exceptions,  working  in 
a highly  specialized  field,  will  have  to  do  the  .same.  They  will 
need  great  wisdom  to  discern  the  approach  of  that  day  in  order 
that  they  may  find  themselves  readjusted  to  it  when  it  comes. 
Even  with  the  greatest  foresight,  however,  that  transition  when 
it  does  come  will  find  a number  of  men  lamenting  the  plight  in 
which  it  will  discover  them.  They  will  be  men  who  gave  them- 
selves to  educational  work  in  China  in  the  English  language  and 
who  did  not  learn  the  vernacular  and  who  when  the  day  for  Eng- 
lish is  past  will  find  themselves,  perhaps  in  the  prime  of  life  or 
with  a decade  or  two  of  service  still  before  them,  unfitted  to 
return  home  and  disqualified  for  either  educational  or  evan- 
gel i.stic  work  in  China. 

Meanwhile,  must  we  conchide  that  all  our  mission  schools  in 
China  mu.st  turn  them.selves  into  English  schools?  Why  should 
it  be  so  when  the  government  schools  are  Chinese?  Why  can- 
not some  of  our  mission  schools  find  that  economic  correlation 
to  the  existing  conditions  in  Cliina  which  will  enable  them  to 
train  in  Chinese  in  Christian  institutions  men  who  otherwise  will 
have  to  get  their  Chinese  education  in  non-Christian  schools? 
And  all  are  agreed  that  wliether  in  mission  schools  doing  their 
work  in  Chine.se  or  in  mi.ssion  schools  doing  their  work  in  Eng- 
lish there  must  be  more  and  better  teaching  of  the  Chinese  lan- 
guage and  literature  and  history. 

().  The  greatest  nee<l  in  our  schools  and  colleges  in  China 
today  is  for  men  of  constructive  educational  genius  like  Gen- 
eral S.  C.  Arm.strong.  Our  schools  will  only  be  able  to  hold 
their  own  and  to  justify  their  Christian  name  if  they  do  more 
efficient  work  Ilian  other  schools  and  .see  and  grapple  in  a cre- 
ative way  with  the  edncational  problems  which  mu.st  be  solved 
in  China.  Only  a few  Arm.strongs  arise  in  any  centur}',  how- 
ever, and  if  we  cannot  produce  them  at  home  we  certainly  can- 
not send  them  to  China.  In  their  absence,  as  in  the  absence  of 
St.  Paul’s,  in  the  leadenship  of  the  evangelistic  work  on  the 

449 

15 — Report  of  Deputation. 


field  and  in  the  sefi'etar-j'ships  of  the  Boards  at  home,  the  Church 
must  fjet  along  with  the  best  men  that  can  be  found.  Some  new 
ways,  hf)wevei',  must  be  devised  for  getting  the  best  men  and 
for  staffing  our  colleges  and  universities  in  China  in  such  a way 
that  the  ])resident  Avill  always  be  underbuilt  by  some  one  compe- 
tent and  acceptable  to  succeed  him.  At  least  two  of  our  most 
impoi-tant  institutions  in  China  today  are  suffering  at  a time  of 
critical  importance  in  their  histon,’  becau.se  of  their  inabilitA'  to 
find  the  presidents  they  are  seeking. 

education  in  English  demands  a great  deal  of  teaching  of  Eng- 
lish in  the  earlier  years  of  the  course  and  such  teaching,  espec- 
ially in  its  elementarA’  forms,  is  very  di.stasteful  to  older  men 
and  is  a waste  of  strength  on  the  part  of  those  who  have  a raas- 
teiw  of  Chinese  and  who  could  use  their  time  to  much  better 
atlvantage.  The  call  for  young  men  to  come  out  as  short-term 
teachers  or  for  some  other  device  for  meeting  this  need  has,  in 
consequence,  become  pressing.  Where  single  Avomen  could  ap- 
propriately be  employed  for  such  work,  probably  the  best  ar- 
raugement  Avould  be  to  make  pennanent  appointments  of  women 
teacher.s.  Where  for  any  I'ea.son  this  is  impracticable,  the  em- 
])loyment  of  young  men,  unmarried,  on  short  term  appointment, 
is  probably  the  best  solution.  1.  Some  of  the  advantages  in  the 
appointment  of  such  men  are,  fa)  They  bring  the  zeal  and  en- 
thusiasm and  .sAuni)athy  of  young  life,  are  able  to  mingle  Avith 
the  boys,  freely  sharing  in  their  athletics  and  living  Avith  them 
in  their  dormitories,  (hi  Coming  unmarried,  Avithout  the  outfit 
nece.ssarv  for  permanent  re.sidence  and  living  with  the  students, 
the  expense  is  much  less  than  is  invohed  in  the  appointment  of 
a regular  missionarJ^  fc)  Many  young  men  who  are  not  clear 
as  to  their  life  work  are  led  by  the  experiences  of  such  appoint- 
ments as  these  to  decide  to  giA’e  their  lives  to  foreign  missions. 
( d)  AVhether  they  do  this  or  not,  a constant  stream  of  such  young 
men  passing  to  and  fro  betAveen  the  mission  colleges  and  the 
home  land  adA^ertises  the  work  and  makes  friends  for  it  in  the 
home  constituency.  2.  On  the  other  hand  it  may  be  said,  (a) 
that  the  youth  and  inexi)erience  of  these  teachers  invohe  a low 
grade  of  (educational  effleienej".  The  university  authorities  in 
India  appear  to  have  come  to  look  with  disfaAor  upon  their  large 
employment,  (b)  The  economy  is  not  as  great  as  might  appear. 
As  the  appointees  as  a nile  do  not  care  to  stay  longer  than  two 
or  three  years,  and  as  their  traveling  expenses  must  be  met  to 
and  from  the  field,  the  excess  expenditure  on  this  account  eats 
up  any  savings  otherwise,  (c)  It  is  a difficult  task  to  secure 
an  adequate  supply  of  satisfactory  men  and  to  keep  the  suc- 
cession continuous,  (d)  The  idea  of  personal  experimentation 
Avith  missions,  of  finding  out  Avhether  they  are  interesting  or 
not,  the  motives  of  travel  and  sightseeing  Avhich  are  brought  into 
prominence  by  too  great  an  emphasis  on  this  kind  of  service. 
Aveaken  the  fibre  and  tone  of  the  missionaiy  calling  and  ideal, 
and  substitute  interest  for  duty  and  satisfaction  for  sacrifice. 
Ou  the  whole,  hoAA’ever,  as  I have  stated,  this  seems  to  be  the 

450 


best  way  of  dealing  with  llie  problem,  except  where  permanently 
a]>pointed  single  women  can  satisfactorily  do  the  work. 

7.  Another  problem  involved  in  the  growth  of  nnion  institn- 
tions  is  the  relation  of  the  missionaries  attached  to  these  insti- 
tutions to  the  other  missionaries  and  the  work  of  the  station 
wliere  the  nnion  institution  is  located.  Some  feel  that  as  the 
nnion  institution  is  under  a nnion  board  of  control  and  not  un- 
der the  direction  of  the  station  or  of  any  one  denomiuation  of 
missionaries  in  the  station  where  it  is  located,  therefore  the 
mis.sionaries  who  are  in  the  institution  and  whose  work  is  not 
controlled  by  the  station  should  not  have  a full  voice  in  the  de- 
nominational work  of  the  station.  On  the  other  hand,  wherever 
snch  a division  as  this  has  been  established  *it  has  worked  un- 
happily. It  is  desirable  that  the  missionaries  who  are  in  such 
institutions  should  be  held  in  closest  relation  to  the  denomina- 
tional evangelistic  work  which  their  a.ssociates  in  the  local  mis- 
sion station  are  cariwing  on.  They  should  take  such  share  in 
this  work  as  they  are  able  and  should  be  expected  to  participate 
in  the  judgments  that  direct  it.  This  will  give  them  a dual  re- 
lationship of  responsibility,  first  as  members  of  the  faculty  of 
the  union  institution,  and  second,  as  members  at  the  same  time 
of  the  local  mi.ssion  station  of  the  denomination  to  which  they 
belong. 

Just  as  each  union  institution  and  the  missionaries  at  work 
in  it  should  be  drawn  as  closely  as  po.ssible  into  association  with 
all  the  other  work  of  the  denomination,  so  is  it  desirable  that 
the  work  of  the  union  in.stitntions  should  be  kept  as  close  as  pos- 
sible to  the  native  clmrche.s.  It  is  harder  to  do  this  in  the  case 
of  nnion  institutions  than  it  is  with  .denominational  colleges. 
For  this  reason,  often,  as  in  Japan,  the  native  churches  prefer 
the  continuance  of  the  separate  denominational  college  and  op- 
po.se  it.s  merging  into  a great  nnion  institution.  It  has  been  the 
denominational  mis.sion  schools  and  colleges  which  thus  far  have 
given  the  chnrches  their  workers.  In  the  last  ten  years  there 
have  been  fifty  graduates  from  the  Hangchow  College.  Of  these, 
thirteen  have  gone  on  into  the  ministry,  nineteen  have  become 
teachers  of  mission  schools,  eleven  have  entered  bu.siness,  and 
.seven,  the  work  of  the  Young  Elen’s  Christian  Association.  To 
the  (piestion,  ‘‘Do  you  know  of  any  Chinese  pastor  or  eminent 
soul-winner  with  the  evangelistic  ideal  who  has  not  been  trained 
in  a Christian  school?”  more  than  twenty  of  the  leading  edu- 
cators of  China  returned  a practically  unanimous  negative  an- 
swer. The  intimate  relationshij)  between  the  church  and  the 
school  and  the  strong  sense  of  i-(‘sponsibility  on  teachers  for 
guiding  students  into  Christian  work  and  often  into  definite 
Christian  work  in  j>articnlar  local  sch(u)ls  or  congregations 
which  w(‘re  two  of  tin*  fine  features  of  the  denominational  in- 
.stitution  mnst  not  lx*  lost,  as  ther(‘  is  danger  that  they  may  be, 
iti  the  remove  and  heterogeneity  of  the  big  union  institntions. 

8.  The  etfoid  has  been  wisely  made  in  most  of  onr  union  in- 
stitutions in  China  to  sc'cure  the  ju-esence  on  the  local  boards  of 

461 


nianafi'ers  of  .strong  Cliine.se  leaders.  Their  judgment  is  nee<le<l 
now  and  it  is  ino.st  desirable  to  prepare  through  their  presence 
and  participation  on  Ihe  hoards  for  the  distant  day  when  many 
of  these  institutions  will  jiass  over  entirely  into  Chinese  hands. 
It  i.s  very  hard,  however,  both  in  China  and  in  Japan  to  get  such 
nienihers  of  these  boards  to  assume  initiative  and  responsibility. 
They  have  a manly  hesitancy  in  doing  so  in  view  of  the  fact  that 
the  eipiiiunent  and  supjiort  have  come  almost  entirely  from 
abroad.  Large  gifts  from  the  Chinese  themselves  to  these  insti- 
tutions are  desirable  for  many  reasons  and  not  lea.st  liecaiise,  as 
they  are  given,  Chinese  managers  will  be  ready  to  take  a more 
active  and  jiroperly  responsible  part  in  administration. 

9.  The  increased  cost  of  these  union  institutions  and  their 
proper  effort  at  .self-support  re.sult  in  higher  fees  for  education. 
This  either  .shuts  out  poor  students  or  increases  the  burden  of 
debt  which  their  families  incur  to  provide  their  education,  or 
enlarges  the  number  of  men  subsidized  by  the  missions.  The 
danger  is  already  great  enough  of  developing  in  the  mi.ssions 
and  the  church  a kind  of  parallel  to  the  government  serwice  in 
India  or  to  some  great  corporation  in  which  men  are  employed, 
.sujiported,  and  pensioned  on  a pure  business  process.  One  is 
tempted  to  ask  at  times  where  is  the  room  and  expectation  for 
the  heroic  thing,  the  venture  of  love  and  faith  which  is  the  whole 
soul  of  Christian  discipleship.  It  is  tnie  that  we  cannot  do 
otherwise  than  we  are  doing  and  that  it  is  folly  to  beat  our 
heads  against  economic  laws,  but  it  is  line  also  that  we  can  do 
otherwise  than  we  are  doing  and  that  the  spirit  of  heroism  and 
of  faith  laughs  at  economic  laws  and  has  again  and  again  de- 
stroyed them  and  set  up  new  ones  in  their  place  by  the  simple 
device  of  being  starveil  by  them. 

10.  At  Mukden,  Peking,  Tsinanfu,  Nanking,  Shanghai,  and 
Canton  we  discussed  the  problems  of  medical  education  in  China. 
A Commission  from  the  China  Medical  Board  of  the  Rockefeller 
Foundation  was  in  China  at  the  same  time  and  we  .saw  its  mem- 
bers, Dr.  Buttrick,  Dr.  Welch,  Dr.  Flexner  and  Dr.  Gates,  at 
Seoul,  Mukden  and  Peking.  Many  of  the  questions  relating  to 
our  own  re.sponsibility  in  Peking,  Tsinanfu.  Nanking  and  Canton 
can  best  be  discussed  after  the  Commission  has  returned  and  de- 
termined its  policy  and  program.  Wherever  we  went  we  did  all 
that  we  could  to  prepare  the  way  for  a hospitable  reception  of 
any  jiroposals  which  the  China  Medical  Board  might  make  that 

^ would  (‘onserve  the  purpo.ses  with  which  the  medical  missiouan' 
schools  were  founded  and  advance  the  cause  of  medical  education 
in  China. 

11.  There  is  already  the  beginning  of  a demand  for  a higher 
grade  of  theological  education  than  any  that  has  been  provided 
hitherto  in  China,  and  both  in  Peking  and  in  Nanking  the  union 
theological  schools  which  have  been  established  are  proposing  to 
otter  such  courses  as  will  make  it  unnecessary  for  Chinese  stu- 
dents desiring  advanced  theological  instruction  to  go  to  Great 

452 


Britain  or  America.  It  is  encouraging  to  note  that  the  union 
school  in  Peking  wliich  will  oi>en  this  fall  as  an  institution  se]!- 
arate  from  the  lower  Bible  training  courses  for  evangelists,  will 
begin  with  some  twenty-six  men  with  the  B.A.  degree.  Tt  is  to 
the  great  credit  of  the  Methodist  mission  that  sixteen  of  these 
men  come  from  its  churches  and  its  colleges  in  Peking.  No  edu- 
cational work  which  the  Boards  are  doing  in  China  should  have 
more  steadfast  and  unstinted  support  than  the  work  of  thorough 
theological  ti*aining  and  the  preparation  of  men  for  the  minis- 
try. The  preachers  of  the  next  generation  in  China  must  have 
a far  more  thorough  training  than  the  preachers  of  the  last. 

12.  The  j)i‘oblem  of  day  schools  is  in  one  sense  a problem  for 
the  separate  mis.sions  to  deal  with,  inasmuch  as  union  in  edu- 
cational work- at  present  does  not  go  below  the  higher  grade.s, 
except  where  union  universities  or  normal  schools  maintain  pri- 
mary schools  for  practice  pui^io.ses.  But  the  supervision  of  daj^ 
schools  has  now  become  a co-operative  undertaking.  Mr.  Espey, 
for  example,  of  onr  Central  China  mission,  who  has  been  spec- 
ially trained  for  such  work,  is  acting  now  as  day  school  sniier- 
intendent  not  only  for  our  own  but  for  the  schools  of  a number 
of  other  missions  in  Chekiang  and  Kiangsu  i)rovinces.  A pri- 
mary question  regarding  day  schools  is  as  to  their  relation  to 
the  local  community  and  especially  to  the  Chinese  church.  The 
Hwaiyuen  .station  has  worked  out  this  problem  in  a way  that 
has  l>een  adopted  as  a standard  by  the  Kiang  An  Mission  in  the 
following  report  of  its  educational  committee. 

“The  following  five  rules  have  gradually  evolved  and  must  be 
complied  with  before  any  new  school  is  opened: 

“1.  Within  the  school  radius  there  must  be  at  least  three  or 
four  families  whose  continued  interest  in  the  Church  can  be 
expected. 

“2.  School  room  ami  ]>lace  for  the  teacher  to  live  and  cook 
his  food  must  be  arranged  by  the  local  church.  (It  is  often  in 
the  local  chapel.) 

“3.  At  least  ten  ]»upils  guaranleeiiig  .f2.(M)  a year  each  must 
be  secured. 

“4.  One  or  more  men  musl  b(‘  found  who  will  take  the  re- 
.s[)onsibility  of  the  sclns)!  locally,  lumping  in  every  way  to  j>ro- 
niote  its  intere.sts. 

“5.  All  desks,  tables,  books  and  slates  are  furnished  by  the 
j)U])ils.  The  mi.ssion  su])|)li('!s,  blackboard,  chalk,  maj)  and  a 
clock;  also  teacher’s  books  and  cooking  ulensiks. 

“The  Council  .suggests  that  we  should  try  to  have  the  day 
schools  ]>ay  one-half  their  expenses.  This  we  have  not  accom- 
plished. Believing  that  increased  eiriciency  and  high  standards, 
as  well  as  increa.se  in  the  number  of  our  day  schools  will  call  for 
enlarging  exj)enditui-es  which  cannot  be  all  furnished  from  for- 
eign sources,  we  would  recommend  as  follows: 

“That  the  Chihe.se  Church  be  urgwl  to  take  over,  in  whole  or 
part,  as  a regular  part  of  its  activities  the  costs  of  local  day 

453 


ficliools.  To  this  end,  lhal  wherevei’  a day  school  exists  there 
he  appointed  a standing  school  coniniittee  composed  of  local  men 
who  will  be  <lir(*clly  cliai-g(“d  with  the  finances  ami  care  of  the 
school.  This  coinmitt(‘(*  slionld  nialv(‘  every  effort  to  I'aise  the 
whole  budget  locjilly  fi-oni  tuition  and  contributions  from  busi- 
ness men,  church  adherents  and  others  and  expe(,-t  only  such 
grants  from  the  mission  as  are  absolutely  necessary. 

“We  recommend  those  iii  charge  of  day  schools  to  so  j)lan 
this  work  that  all  day  school  teachers  shall  have  the  opportunity 
of  some  normal  training.” 

If  the  day  schools  ai'e  riglitly  related  to  the  local  communi- 
ties and  the  churches,  many  of  the  problems  which  have  per- 
])lexed  the  missions  with  regard  to  the.se  schools  in  the  past  will 
be  cleared  away.  There  remains,  however,  the  very  vital  que.stion 
as  to  the  educational  character  and  use  of  the.se  schools.  A care- 
ful investigation  of  2G0  day  schools  in  Fukien  province  showed 
that  only  37  per  cent,  of  the  boys  remained  in  school  longer  than 
two  years.  In  one  school  numbering  40  there  were  this  year 
only  six  boys  who  were  members  of  the  school  last  year  and 
there  were  other  schools  where  .similar  conditions  obtained. 
One  hundred  and  thirty-two  boys’  day  schools  with  3,201  pupils 
i-eported  that  out  of  that  entire  number  only  112  or  three  and 
two-fifths  per  cent,  went  on  into  the  next  higher  grade  of  school. 
Now,  as  a matter  of  fact,  the  curriculum  of  the  schools  is  laid 
out  with  sole  reference  to  the  connection  of  the  school  with  the 
higher  grade.  In  other  words  it  is  the  interests  of  less  than  4 
per  cent,  of  the  pupils  which  determine  the  educational  char- 
acter and  use  of  the  day  school.  The  percentages  might  differ 
in  other  province.s,  but  the  fact  would  remain  everywhere  that 
the  purpose  of  the  day  schools  has  had  in  view  the  needs  of  but 
a small  minority  of  the  pupils.  There  is  no  more  important 
problem  of  education  in  China  today  than  the  right  adju.stment 
of  elementary  education  to  the  interests  of  the  majority  of  the 
pupils  and  the  needs  of  society. 

III.  Some  other  Union  Problems. 

1.  The  union  of  the  mission  pres.ses  in  Shanghai.  The  nego- 
tiations begun  some  years  ago  for  a union  of  the  Methodist  and 
Presbyterian  presses  in  Shanghai  have  been  continued  in  the 
most  friendly  si)irit.  Nothing  further  can  be  done  until  in  the 
Southern  Methodist  church,  which  jointly  with  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  church  maintains  the  press  in  Shanghai,  a transfer 
has  been  effected  passing  the  press  over  from  the  Board  of  Pub- 
lication to  the  Board  of  Mis.sions  of  the  church.  Meanwhile  the 
managers  of  the  two  pre.sses  in  Shanghai  ai*e  in  constant  con- 
ference and  a union  of  their  book  stores  has  been  already  effected. 
It  would  be  desirable  if  this  union  could  inchide  every  missiou- 
aiy  agency  operating  in  this  field  in  Shanghai.  There  are  many 
practical  problems  that  will  have  to  be  dealt  with  after  the 
Southern  Methodist  Board  is  in  a position  to  go  forward  with 

454 


the  matter  and  these  will  come  before  the  Boards  at  home  from 
time  to  time  as  they  emerge. 

The  develoijment  of  great  Chinese  presses  has  wholly  changed 
the  conditions  in  Shanghai  since  the  mission  presses  were  start- 
ed. The  Commercial  Press,  establi.shed  by  men  trained  in  the 
mission  press,  is  now  the  greatest  printing  and  publishing  estab- 
lishment in  Asia.  The  founders  were  Christians  and  practical 
printers  and  many  of  the  men  who  control  the  press  now  are 
warm-hearted  Christian  men.  For  some  years  about  one-fourth 
of  the  capital  was  held  by  Japanese,  but  all  foreign  shares  were 
redeemed  in  1914,  so  that  the  company  is  now  a purely  Chinese 
concern  with  a jjaid  up  capital  of  !5!2,000,()00  Mexican.  The 
annual  output  of  the  press  is  now  nearly  0,000,000,000  pages 
or  00,000,000  Amlumes,  one-twelfth  of  them  bound  in  foreign  style 
and  the  rest  in  Chinese.  In  one  year  it  sold  over  a million  copies 
of  one  reading  book  alone.  It  casts  annually  over  300,000  pounds 
of  type,  manufactures  printing  presses,  and  school  materials  of 
all  kinds.  It  has  a nine  hours  work  day,  Sunday  holidays,  an 
evening  .school  for  emi)loyees  and  day  school  for  their  children. 
Women  emjjloyees  are  allowed  to  retain  their  positions  and  are 
given  a month  off  before  and  another  month  after  child  birth. 
The  nursing  babies  of  mothers  working  in  the  factory  ai’e  al- 
lowed to  be  brought  to  be  fed  during  work  hours.  American 
l)rinters  who  have  visited  the  e.stablishment  pronounce  it  to  be 
\ini(iue,  combining  more  departments  than  any  other  printing 
establishment  in  the  world.  Its  managers  cordially  recognize 
their  debt  to  the  Presbyterian  mi.ssion  j)ress  and  speak  of  their 
enterprise  as  one  of  the  otfsj)ring  of  missions.  It  will  be  a happ3’ 
da}"  when  missions  can  show  churches  and  .schools  among  their 
offspring  as  lusty  and  absolutely  independent  as  this  press.  .Such 
institutions  have  not  yet  done  away  with  the  nece.ssity  of  the 
mi.ssion  press,  although  they  have  cut  off’  a largt;  part  of  its  most 
remunerative  work  such  as  the  i)rinting  of  new  editioiis  of  the 
Bible.  There  is  still  an  immense  amount  of  publishing  and 
printing  which  must  be  done  for  the  missions  in  China  which 
no  other  agency  than  the  mission  press  can  do,  and  it  is  needed 
still  for  a (piality  of  work  and  for  undertakings  of  exacting 
actairacy  which  only  tlie  mi.ssion  i)ress  as  yet  sujjplies. 

2.  I’nion  Mi.ssions  Building.  There  is  no  central  missionary 
headcpiarters  of  all  the  mission  agencies  which  have  ollices  in 
Shanghai.  It  is  very  desirable  that  there  .should  be  such  a cen- 
tral head(piarters,  housing  the  various  interdenominational  or- 
ganizations and  ]trovi<ling  cpiarters  for  denominational  bodies, 
caring  for  \inion  missionary  tract  and  book  activities  and  sup- 
plying halls  for  missionaiy  gatherings.  Our  old  press  property 
at  18  Peking  Koad  is  .suggested  as  the  site  for  such  a building. 
At  present  it  is  used  for  the  union  book  store,  the  press  offices 
(the  j)rinting  all  being  done  elsewhere),  headquarters  for  the 
China  Council,  the  central  liscal  agency  of  our  mi.ssions,  and 
residence's.  It  is  a pro])erty  of  good  size  but  not  ideally  shaped 

455 


for  the  proposed  use.  The  plan  is  to  be  the  subject  of  further 
conference  among  the  agencies  that  will  be  interested,  in  Hhang- 
hai.  If  it  is  found  to  be  de.sirable  and  18  Peking  Itoad  is  re- 
garded as  a suitable  jtlace  the  propo.sal  might  be  that  our  Board  - 
should  contribute  the  land  and  that  tlie  money  for  the  building 
should  either  be  provided  by  contributions  from  the  other  agen- 
cies that  would  make  use  of  it  or  by  .special  gift  if  such  could  be 
secured. 

3.  The  school  for  mi.ssionaries’  children  in  Shanghai  has 
proved  a great  success.  There  are  now  lit!  children  in  the  school, 
all  but  12  from  missionary  homes,  representing  21  different  mis- 
sions of  which  onl}'  six  as  yet  contribute  toward  the  budget  of 
the  school.  The  children  from  the  non-contributihg  missions 
are  of  course  charged  fees  a little  in  exce.ss  of  tho.se  charged  the 
children  of  the  mi.ssionardes  of  the  contributing  mi.s.sions,  but 
the  difference  does  not  begin  to  offs'et  the  contributions  made  by 
the  six  contributing  mi,s,sions  or  their  home  Boards  to  the  budget 
of  the  school.  Our  Board  is  at  present  contributing  81,750  gold 
per  annum  and  there  are  at  present  in  the  school  15  children 
from  our  mis.sions.  The  Central  China  Mis.sions  a.sks  the  Board 
to  increase  its  contribution  to  .81,882  gold  per  annum,  and  I 
think  our  Board  should  respond  to  this  recjuest  of  the  mi.ssion 
unle.ss  some  of  the  Boards  which  are  not  now  contributing  can 
be  induced  to  do  so. 

The  plan  for  a school  for  missionaries’  children  at  Kuling  has 
never  been  abandoned  and  there  now  seems  to  be  some  prospect 
that  such  a school  can  be  establi.shed.  The  missionaries  in  the 
interior  are  still  firmly  of  the  conviction  that  such  a school  is 
needed  and  that  the  Shanghai  school  cannot  meet  their  needs. 
The  Board  has  agreed  to  provide  -8400  gold  per  annum  in  behalf 
of  the  Hunan  Mi.ssion  toward  the  Kuling  .school  and  the  Kiang 
An  Mission  has*  asked  that  the  Board  assign  one-half  of  the 
funds  now  appropriated  to  the  .school  for  missionaries’  children 
in  Shanghai  in  behalf  of  the  Kiang  An  Mission  to  the  Kuling 
school  as  soon  as  it  can  be  undertaken.  I doubt  whether  this 
should  be  done.  The  Kiang  An  Mission  would  not  now  send 
any  children  to  the  Kuling  school.  The  Shanghai  school  needs 
all  the  help  that  it  is  receiving.  If  a school  at  Kuling  is  really 
needed  I think  that  we  should  face  our  responsibility  to  it  on  its 
merits  and  if  we  ought  to  aid  it  further,  to  do  so  without  reduc- 
ing at  the  present  time  our  appropriations  to  the  Shanghai 
school. 

4.  One  of  the  most  satisfactory  union  agencies  in  which  the 
Board  is  co-operating  seems  to  be  the  language  school  of  the 
Nanking  University  where  scores  of  missionaries  annually  are 
receiving  a guidance  in  language  study  such  as  was  not  possible 
under  the  old  system  of  separate  language  work  in  the  different 
stations.  This  school  is  more  than  a language  school.  It  is  also 
a general  training  school  and  our  younger  missionaries  who 

456 


have  studied  there  are  warm  iu  their  praise  of  all  that  the  school 
has  done  for  them.  They  urge  that  all  new  missionaries,  even 
these  going  to  the  Woo  dialect  stations  of  our  Central  China 
Mission,  should  have  the  advantage  of  the  systematic  work  and 
general  training  and  the  personal  fellowship  by  which  the  first 
year  of  missionary  life  in  China  is  made  so  helpful  and  encour- 
aging at  Nanking. 

R.  E.  S. 


457 


4.  A KEVIEW  OE  SOME  PAKTS  OF  MEDICAL  MISSIONS 

IN  CHINA 

DAVID  BOVAIRD,  M.D. 

Oul-  .stay  in  China  lacked  one  day  of  being  five  weeks.  The 
following  table  of  places  and  institutions  visited  will  give  in  a 
general  way  the  .scope  of  onr  ob.servations; 

Mukden : The  Ho.spital  and  Medical  School  under  the  care  of 
Dr.  Christie  of  the  United  Free  Church  of  Scotland,  with  co- 
operation of  Irish  Presbyterians  and  Danish  Lutherans. 

Peking:  Douw  Hospital  for  Women,  under  Drs.  Leonard  and 
Bash.  Methodist  Hospital  for  Women,  and  the  Union  Medical 
School  for  Women,  Union  Medical  School  and  the  Lockhart 
Ho.spital,  formerly  of  the  London  Mission,  now  in  charge  of 
China  Medical  Board.  ^ 

Tsinon-fu:  English  Baptist  Hospital,  under  Dr.  Balme;  Union 
Meflical  School. 

Nnn  Hsu  Choir:  Dr.  Wiltsie  just  arrived  on  field  and  begin- 
ning language  study. 

Hirai-Yiien  : Hope  Hospital,  under  Dr.  Cochran  ; Women’s  Hos- 
j)ital,  just  beginning  building  operations. 

Yanking:  Hospital  and  Union  Medical  School.  Hospital  for 
Women,  under  Dr.  Keator. 

Poochoir : Tooker  Hospital  for  Women,  Dr.  Andei-son ; South- 
ern Methodist  Hospital  for  Women,  under  Dr.  Polk ; Southern 
Methodi.st  Hospital  for  Men,  under  Drs.  Park  and  Ru.s.sell. 

Xingpo:  English  Bajitist  Hospital,  under  Dr.  Grant.  C.  M.  S. 
Hospital. 

Hangchoir : C.  M.  S.  Hospital,  under  Dr.  Main.  C.  M.  S.  Con- 
valescent Home.  C.  ISI  S Tuberculosis  Sanatorium 

Sfhanghni : St.  Luke’s  Hospital.  Pennsylvania  Medical  School. 
Med.  Dept.  St.  John’s  Univer.sity.  St.  Elizabeth’s  Hospital,  un- 
der Dr.  Fullerton,  Ejnscnpal.  ^largaret  Williamson  Hospital, 
under  Dr.  Garner,  Women’s  Union  Board.  Chinese  Hospital, 
under  Dr.  Davenport  of  C.  M.  S.  Chinese  Hospital,  under  Dr. 
Chang,  pupil  of  Dr.  Mary  Fulton.  Red  Cross  Hospital  and  Har- 
vard Medical  School. 

Canton  (visited  in  May)  : Canton  General  Hospital,  under  Drs. 
Cadbury.  Woods  and  Howard.  Hackett  Hospital  and  Medical 
School  for  Women,  under  Drs.  Hackett  and  Allyn.  Kung  Yi 
Hospital  and  Medical  School,  under  Dr.  Todd. 

The  Canton  institutions  and  the  situation  existing  there  with 
relation  to  medical  work  and  education  were  fully  dealt  with 
in  Mr.  Speer’s  reports  to  the  Board  written  at  the  time  of  our 

458 


visit,  so  I shall  not  attempt  to  report  upon  them  now.  Many 
of  the  institutions  visited  have  no  relation  with  our  Board  and 
our  visits  to  them  were  made  for  the  sake  of  affording  stand- 
ards of  comparison  for  our  own.  Nearly  all  of  them  are  fur- 
thermore fully  dealt  vdth  in  the  report  of  the  China  Medical 
Commission  of  the  Rockefeller  Foundation  (1914). 

To  take  up  the  institutions  in  which  we  have  direct  interest: 

The  Douw  Hospital,  just  across  a narrow  street  from  the 
Er-tiao  compound,  in  Peking,  was  just  nearing  completion  and 
recently  opened.  It  is  tv’o-storied,  well  planned,  substantially 
built  and  pleading  both  outwardly  and  in  its  interior.  There  are 
a number  of  rooms  for  private  patients  and  wards  for  general, 
with  special  provision  for  obstetric  cases,  the  total  capacity 
being  25  to  30  patients.  There  is  a large,  well-equipped  operat- 
ing room  and  a small  laborator\’.  ( One  of  the  weaknesses  of  the 
women’s  institutions  seems  to  be  a failure  to  grasp  the  vital  im- 
portance of  laboratory  work,  or  to  make  adequate  provision  for 
it.)  On  the  upper  floor  on  the  southern  side  are  balconies  where 
the  ]>atients  may  enjoy  the  sunshine  and  fresh  air.  The  hospital 
.staff  consists  of  Drs.  Leonard  and  Bash.  At  the  time  of  our 
visit  Dr.  Bash  had  been  laid  up  by  illness  for  some  days  and  Dr. 
I^eonard’s  time  was  almost  fully  occupied  by  her  duties  in  the 
Women’s  Medical  College.  The  hospital  was  almost  empty,  an- 
other forcible  illustration  of  the  di.sadvantages  of  too  small 
a staff.  It  was  expected  that  Dr.  Bash  would  soon  be  able 
to  resume  her  duties  and  get  the  ho.spital  work  going.  If  the 
hospital  were  open  and  working  to  its  full  capacity  there  should 
certainly  be  quite  enough  to  occupy  the  entire  time  and  energy' 
of  both  these  physicians. 

The  Methodist  Hospital  for  Women,  with  which  is  as.sociafed 
file  Fnion  Women’s  ^[edical  Rchool.  of  which,  I believe.  Dr. 
Ia‘onard  is  dean,  is  a new  hospital  just  op(‘ned  with  a capacity  of 
about  tJO  patients.  It  is  a very  attractive  institution,  with  two 
American  women  physicians  and  a trained  nurse  in  charge, 
hut  the  laboratory  was  hardly  more  than  a clo.set,  totally  inade- 
quate for  the  hospital,  even  if  the  teaching  of  students  were 
not  contemj)lated.  The  ^ledical  School  consi.sts  practically  of 
a few  classrooms,  in  which  the  students  are  taught  by  lectures 
ami  recitations.  There  are  no  facilities  for  teaching  anatomy 
other  than  a manikin  and  charts,  and  no  clinical,  physiological, 
bacteriological  or  pathological  laboratories.  There  were,  how- 
ever, four  or  live  young  ('liine.se  girls  from  variou.s  parts  of  the 
country,  who  had  just  come  in  and  were  undergoing  the  revo- 
lutionary unbinding  of  the  fivt,  which  is  a rwpiired  preliminary 
to  beginning  the  in(*dical  education. 

The  conclusion  of  (he  (’hina  Minlical  (’ommi.ssion  that  the 
time  is  not  yet  ripe  for  fostering  the  im^dical  education  of  women 
may  be  challenged,  but  c(‘rlaintly  such  (Mliication  can  hardly  be 
accomplished  under  pre.sen(  conditions  in  Peking.  Even  grant- 
ing that  the  i»reliminary  education  of  these  girls  were  adeijuate, 

459 


siicli  training  as  conlil  now  l)e  given  them  in  this  school  could 
hardly  (inalify  them  for  the  j)ractice  of  medicine.  It  is  to  be 
hoj)ed  that  additions  to  the  wjnijiment  and  staff  of  the  school 
ma3'  put  it  on  an  ade<}uate  basis. 

With  relation  to  the  T'nion  Medical  School,  any  action  on  our 
part  must  await  the  i*etnrn  of  the  China  Medical  Board  and 
tlnjir  determination  as  to  what  they  wish  done.  For  one  J"ea- 
son  or  another  there  are  many  vacancies  on  the  staff  and  they 
are  in  need  of  reinforcements,  but  it  has  been  impossible  to  in- 
duce any  oi’  the  missionaries  now  in  China  to  come  to  their  as- 
sistance, because  of  uncei-tainty  as  to  the  ]dans  of  the  China 
Medical  Board.  As  Dr.  Bnttrick  and  his  colleagues  were  in 
Peking  during  our  .stay,  that  uncertainty  should  soon  be  re- 
moved. By  reason  of  the  death  of  Dr.  Hall,  and  Dr.  Dilley’s  fur- 
lough, oni-  Board  is  at  present  without  repre.sentation  on  the 
staff  of  the  school.  Dr.  Dicks^m  is  in  Peking,  but.  of  course, 
just  beginning  his  language  .studies  and  not  available  for  teach- 
ing service.  Doubtless  our  Board  will  l)e  quite  ready  to  meet 
the  wishes  of  the  China  Mcnlical  Board  as  fully  as  possible,  when 
they  are  known. 

The  annual  meeting  of  the  North  China  Mission  was  in  .ses- 
sion, when  we  reached  lacking,  and  we  had  the  pleasure  of  meet- 
ing many  of  the  missionaries  and  conferring  with  them  relative 
to  the  medical  work  and  the  new  situation  brought  about  by  the 
part  the  Kockefeller  Foundation  is  undertaking  in  medical  edu- 
cation. There  is  a veiw  real  concern  among  many  of  the  mis- 
sionaries lest  by  reason  of  the  changes  introduced  by  these  new 
interests,  the  mission  medical  schools  will  become  wholH  .secu- 
larized and  lose  entirely  the  missionary  character  and  evangelis- 
tic puiq^ose  that  have  thus  far  marked  them.  Back  of  that  fear 
in  the  minds  of  most  of  them  lies  the  knowledge  of  what  has 
happened  in  the  ca.se  of  the  Harvard  Medical  School  in  Shanghai. 
This  institution  was  originally  conceived  by  many  as  a mission 
enterprise,  and  some  of  the  men  who  first  came  out  to  it  expectefl 
to  fill  the  parts  of  mis.sionaries.  It  has,  however,  undergone 
such  changes  that  some  of  these  men  have  resigned  from  the 
staff  and  their  ])laces  have  been  filled  by  others,  who  though 
good  medical  men.  have  no  intere.st  in  missions  and  no  purpose 
of  aiding  directly  the  preaching  of  the  Go.spel.  Furthermore 
some  of  the  new  api)ointees  give  but  part  time  to  the  school  and 
its  ho.s])ital  and  practice  in  Shanghai  for  their  own  profit.  There 
are  therefore  great  disci*epancies  between  their  incomes  and  those 
of  men  on  the  missionary  basis  and  much  dissatisfaction  for  that 
reason.  Some  of  our  missionaries.  I think,  also  have  fears  that 
the  entrance  of  the  Rockefeller  Foundation  into  this  mission 
work  may  lead  to  criticism  or  opposition  on  the  'part  of  people  at 
home,  or  that  it  may  lessen  the  feeling  of  responsibility  on  the 
part  of  the  church  for  this  work,  diminish  contributions  from 
some  quarters,  and  in  the  end  work  harm  rather  than  good  to 
the  cause.  AVe  endeavored  eaimestly  to  allay  these  fears  and  to 

460 


persuade  all  our  people  that  the  aid  thus  offered  them  should 
be  regarded  as  jirovideutial  and  welcomed  and  that  they  should 
meet  the  China  Medical  Board  with  entire  confidence  in  its  pur- 
poses and  in  the  spirit  of  hearty  co-oj)eration.  Various  consid- 
erations lead  ns  to  that  position.  The  work  of  the  several 
schools  in  which  we  are  interested  could  not  have  been  much 
longer  continued  under  the  old  conditions.  There  was  not  one 
of  them  adequately  equipped  or  staffed.  All  the  missionaries 
knew  this  and  had  made  great  sacrifices  to  help  meet  the  needs 
of  the  schooLs,  bnt  only  as  they  secured  gifts  from  interested 
friends  at  home  were  they  able  to  make  progress,  and  that 
progress  has  been  paiufnlly  limited.  Furthermore  the  heavy 
burdens  imposed  upon  the  teachers  in  fhese  schools  in  their  nn- 
dermanned  condition  left  them  neither  time  nor  energy  to  de- 
vote to  such  evangelistic  (personal)  work  among  the  students 
as  they  desired  or  as  indeed  was  es.sential  to  the  realization  of 
their  hopes  that  their  schools  should  turn  out  Christian  physi- 
cians. If  now  these  same  institutions  could  be  provided  with 
adequate  staffs  and  equijmieut,  the  pro.spect  of  so  doing  would  be 
j)roportionately  increased.  The  plans  of  the  China  Medical 
Board,  as  ontlined  in  the  correspondence  with  the  mission  boards, 
offer  us  institutions  the  like  of  which  can  be  found  nowhere  else 
in  the  world,  namely,  tir.st-cla.ss  medical  .schools  who.se  faculties 
are  made  np  of  Christian  men,  controlled  by  the  missionary  pur- 
j)ose.  What  more  can  our  mission  boai-ds  or  their  representa- 
tives fairly  ask?  To  be  left  to  themselves  to  accomplish  a task 
which  years  of  experience,  desj)ite  herculean  labors  on  their 
part,  have  proven  beyond  their  resources?  Surely  it  is  the  part 
of  wisdom  to  welcome  this  new  and  providential  as.sistance  and 
\ise  it  for  the  promotion  of  our  Lord’s  cause.  The  members  of 
the  China  Medical  Board  have  rea.son  to  expect  frank  confidence 
and  hearty  co-operation.  They  are  not  untried  or  unknown  men. 
They  bring  to  theii-  new  enterjtrise  the  record  of  manj'  years  of 
noble  public  service  in  the  cause  of  general  or  medical  education. 
They  a.ssume  their  new  duties,  as  set  forth  in  the  terms  of  Mr. 
Uockefeller’s  letters,  with  hearty  .syni])athy  and  co-oi)eration 
with  the  mission  caus(*.  Much  of  the  ap])i-eliension  with  which 
the  entrance  of  the  Foundation  into  the  held  of  medical  nluca- 
lion  in  China  has  be(*n  anticipated  has,  we  feel  sure,  been  due  to 
uncertainly  as  to  just  what  the  China  Medical  Board  would  do 
and  how.  We  shall  hope  that  their  j)lans,  when  unfolded,  as 
they  must  be  soon,  will  go  far  toward  rea.s.suring  our  re])re.senta- 
tives  and  convincing  them  that  Iheii-  duty  lies  in  going  forward 
with  courage  and  faith  in  co-o])eration  with  these  new  agencies 
which  (i<m1  has  brought  to  the  accom])lishment  of  Ilis  work.  No 
miml  can  ])ictnre  the  limitless  jjossibilities  for  the  relief  of  hu- 
man suffering  and  the  u|)lift  of  the  Chinese  ]>eo])le  (one-quarter 
of  the  human  racei  in  tlie  (leveloi)ment  of  a thoroughly  trained 
medical  ju-ofession.  Nor  can  we  discern  in  all  the  lines  of  Chris- 
tian endeavor  any  oj>iH)rtnnity  that  presents  greater  j)ossibili- 

461 


ties  of  advaiicin"'  Clirisl’s  Kirif^doiii  than  tliat  open  to  us  at  this 
lime  to  j)ut  the  imi)ress  of  His  chai'acfer  upon  the  students  of 
Ihe  h(‘s|  nnslical  sclioots  iii  t’hina. 

Upon  two  j)i-o|)ositions  llie  missionaries  we  met  at  I’ekiuj^  and 
Nankin}*’,  sHuned  lo  he  nnanimous;  first,  llial  lliere  should  In?  one 
or  more  schools  teacliiii}*’  in  tdiiii(*se  and  esjiecially  one  such  in 
the  Yan}*t7.e  valley;  s(*cond,  lliat  llie  new  aj)j)ointees  lo  the  me<li- 
cal  staffs  should  be  ui)on  the  missionary  basis  as  to  salary’. 

The  first  of  these  jjroposals  is  certainly  reasonable  and  wise. 
Tlie  China  Medical  Commission  of  the  Kockefeller  Foundation, 
thou}*h  the  majority  of  the  faculty  of  the  IN*kin}?  School  were  in 
favor  of  teachiii}*’  in  Chineses,  and  they  found  many  others  of 
like  opinion,  decide<l  that  for  the  ]>resent  (and  for  some  time 
to  come)  instruction  in  nuslicine  should  be  in  English.  That 
deci.sion  so  far  as  the  Peking  and  Shanghai  .schools  are  conceraed 
must  be  accej)ted.  The  arguments  for  Chine.se  and  English,  i-e- 
.spectively,  are  given  in  the  Ke])ort  of  the  China  Medical  Com- 
mission. A con.siderably  stronger  jdea  may  be  made  for  the 
use  of  the  vernacular,  as  may  be  s(*en  from  the  7>aj)er.s.  of  Dr. 
Venable  and  Dr.  Stuckey,  which  will  be  ai)pended  to  this  report. 
The  deci.sive  considei-ation  with  the  Commission  was  doubtle.ss 
the  fact  that  if  teaching  in  Chinese  were  re<piired  it  would  be 
impostible  to  secure  the  number  of  profes.sors  neces.sary  to  prop- 
erly man  the  schools.  The  field  of  choice  is  greatly  widene<l  by 
adopting  English.  On  the  other  hand  there  are  now  in  China  a 
number  of  men  thoroughly  familiar  with  the  Mandarin  language 
and  eager  to  teach  in  it.  Ts  it  not  highly  desirable  that  they 
should  not  only  be  permitted  but  encouragerk  to  do  so?  If  mod- 
ern medical  .science  is  to  be  made  available  for  the  Chinese  peo- 
ple at  large  its  ideas  and  terms  must  be  given  to  them  in  their 
own  tongue.  Indeed  the  education  of  medical  students  in  a 
thorough  manner  will  be  rendered  futile,  unless  at  the  same  time 
the  people  upon  whom  they  must  depend  for  patronage  and 
support  learn  sufficient  of  the  subject  to  appreciate  what  is 
offered  them  in  a well-trained  medical  ])rofession.  This  e<luca- 
lion  of  the  ])eo])le  will  be  jjractically  barred  if  English  alone 
is  used  in  the  medical  teaching,  and  it  will  be  facilitated  in 
])r(»portion  to  the  use  of  their  own  tongue. 

As  to  tbe  question  of  literature,  which  is  also  a highly  im- 
portant oue,  there  have  already  been  translated  into  Chinese 
a sufficient  inimber  of  standard  text-books  to  enable  any  Chin- 
ese student  to  get  a satisfactoiw  working  libraiw  for  his  student 
days.  These  tran.slatious  have  been  ]irinted  with  the  approval  of 
a conunittee  of  the  China  Medical  Association,  which  has  been 
giving  considerable  attention  to  the  subject.  The  process  of 
increasing  this  supply  will  assuredly  be  fostered  just  in  pro- 
l)ortioin  as  the  demand  for  such  work  is  increased  by  the  use  of 
Chinese  in  the  schools.  Furthermore,  instruction  in  English 
should  be  part  of  the  curriculum  of  all  schools  teaching  in  Chin- 
ese, just  as  German  is  taught  in  all  the  prefectural  Japanese 

462 


schools  of  medicine  to  the  end  that  at  his  graduation  the  stu- 
dent should  be  able  to  arail  liimself  of  tbe  riches  of  English 
medical  literature.  For  all  of  these  reasons  the  missionaries’ 
projjosal  that  there  should  be  some  schools  in  which  medicine  is 
taught  in  Chinese  should  be  supported.  In  which  schools? 
Tsinan-fu  for  one.  The  China  Medical  Commission  regards  this 
city  as  an  unfavorable  one  for  the  seat  of  a medical  school  and 
advises  that  the  students  be  sent  to  Peking.  Yet  there  are 
strong  reasons  for  supporting  and  seeking  to  develop  it.  The 
city  lies  in  a province  containing  50,000,000  people,  as  greatly 
in  need  of  skilled  medical  service  as  any  part  of  China.  The 
people  are  ])oor  and  it  is  the  opinion  of  the  missionaries  on  the 
ground  that  if  the  school  is  given  up,  few,  if  any,  of  the  students 
can  be  induced  to  go  to  Peking.  The  school  is  also  an  important 
factor  in  the  development  of  the  Shantung  Christian  University, 
and  its  abandonment  would  be  a severe  blow  to  that  promising 
institution.  The  English  Baptists  have  just  opened  a new  and 
very  well  equipped  hospital  of  100  beds.  The  medical  school 
has  a fair  building  and  the  beginnings  at  least  of  adequate  lab- 
oratories. It  has  already  a strong  faculty  of  seven  English  and 
Americans  and  one  gra<luate  of  their  own  school.  The  founda- 
ti(uis  of  a vigorous  school  are  well  laid  and  it  shoitld  certainly 
be  develojted  to  fnltil  the  aims  of  its  Founders,  i.  e.,  a provincial 
school  aiming  to  ])r(wide  thoroughly  trained  Christian  men  for 
work  in  Shantung.  A cla.ss  of  s<*ven  men  have  already  been 
graduated  and  all  of  them  are  now  serving  in  mission  hospitals. 
The  retirement  of  Dr.  Schultz  from  the  faculty  just  at  this  time 
is  greatly  to  be  regrett(*d  and  e\ery  effort  should  be  made  to 
pi-oinj)tly  till  the  vacancy. 

Incidentally  the  women’s  hos])ital  conducted  by  Di*.  Keator  in 
Tsinan-fu,  was  visit(-d  during  onr  stay.  It  consists  of  a couple 
of  native  hou.ses,  each  containing  two  or  three  bed.s,  and  a room 
for  dis|»(Misary  work.  Dr.  IMerwin  is  also  soon  to  return  to  duty 
in  Tsinan-fn.  If  this  work  is  to  b(‘  continued,  they  should  clear- 
ly have  b(*tt(*i-  faciliti(*s.  It  is  inij)ossible  to  do  good  work  under 
such  conditions.  If  this  is  not  i)racticable,  would  it  not  be  best 
to  give  nj»  this  work  and  transfei-  tlu'sc  physicians  to  other  j>oints 
where  helj)  is  needed? 

Nanking.  This  is  undoubtedly  the  most  dillicult  problem  before 
us  at  this  time.  Severn  mission  societies  have  taken  i>art  in  the 
establishment  of  the  Nanking  University  ^ledical  School.  By 
this  union  a strong  nuKlical  staff  has  been  gathered  together, 
but  they  are  without  sullicient  (*<piipnient.  The  hospital  of  118 
b(*<Is  is  anticpiatcNl  e.xce])ting  for  a newly-built  operating  room. 
Its  laboi-atories  are  sorely  lacking  in  api)aratus.  There  is  no 
nuslical  school  bnihling.  The  scliool  therefore  requires  heavy 
exp(*nditui-es  to  give  it  the  physical  (*(|uipnient  necessarj’.  The 
faculty  is  unit(*d  in  the  opinion  that  there  is  newl  of  a medical 
•school  teaching  in  Mamlarin  in  the  Yangtze  Valley  and  it  seems 
ii(»  doubt  that  there  would  be  an  aini»Ie  field  for  such  an  insti- 

463 


tation.  There  are,  however,  two  great  difficulties  in  the  devel- 
opment of  such  a school  in  Nanking.  There  are  plenty  of  young 
Chinese  eager  to  stud}'  meflicine,  plenty  of  them  now  studying 
in  the  TTniversit}’,  hut  in  the  ]>resent  trend  of  things  in  China, 
nearly  all  these  students  want  their  medical  in.stniction  in  Eng- 
lish. This  appears  to  he  the  result  not  of  any  consideration  of 
the  relative  advantages  of  the  use  of  English  in  meclical  studies, 
but  of  the  fact  that  a knowledge  of  English  is  an  e.ssential  part 
of  the  new  order  of  things,  a mark  of  the  progressive  spirit,  and, 
therefore,  all  the  ambitious  .students  want  all  they  can  get  of  it. 
Much  of  the  in.struction  in  other  departments  of  Nanking  Uni- 
versity is  carried  on  in  English.  The  graduates  of  the  Univeisv 
ity,  therefore,  want  their  medical  cour.ses  in  English.  There- 
fore, to  provide  the  school  with  students  prepares!  to  study  medi- 
cine in  Chinese,  the  .school  must  take  some  of  the  graduates  of 
lower  schools  and  give  them  a .special  preparatory'  course  in  .sci- 
ence in  Chinese.  Under  such  conditions  the  number  of  .students 
is  greatly  limited. 

The  second  great  obstacle  is  the  comparatively  short  distance 
of  Nanking  from  Shanghai,  where  there  are  at  pre.sent  two 
schools  teaching  medicine  in  Engli.sh — Harvard  and  the  Uni- 
versity of  Pennsylvania  School,  which  is  combine<l  with  the 
medical  department  of  St.  John’s  Univer.sity.  The  China  Medi- 
cal Commis.sion  of  the  Rockefeller  Foundation  has  .selected 
Shanghai  as  one  of  the  centres  for  a strong  .school  teaching  in 
English,  and  there  is  no  doubt  that  the  China  Medical  Board 
will  seek  to  secure  some  union  of  the  two  schools  now  estab- 
lished in  Shanghai,  and  if  .succes.sful  in  that  effort,  will  grant 
the  new  institution  all  the  aid  it  needs  to  attain  a high  .stand- 
ing. There  are,  however,  great  difficulties  in  the  way  of  .such  a 
union,  desirable  as  it  is  from  the  viewpoint  of  tho.se  impersonally 
interested  in  the  promotion  of  higher  medical  education.  If  the 
China  Medical  Board  can  bring  about  an  alliance  which  prom- 
ises a strong  Christian  school  in  Shanghai,  the  only  remaining 
reason  for  j)ersi.sting  in  the  effort  to  build  up  the  Nanking 
school  is  the  need  of  education  of  doctors  in  the  Chine.se  lan- 
guage. The  faculty  of  the  Nanking  school  liave  expre.ssed  their 
willingness  to  give  up  their  own  undertaking  if  a school  of  this 
character  can  be  brought  about  in  Shanghai,  even  if  in  this 
school  English  alone  should  be  made  the  medium  of  in.structiou. 
We  were  privileged  to  attend  a meeting  of  the  trustees  of  Nan- 
king University,  where  the  broad,  high-minded  spirit  in  which 
this  question  was  discus.sed,  made  a deej)  impression  upon  us. 
The  loss  of  the  medical  department  would  be  a severe  blow  to 
the  Univer.sity,  but  they  are  willing  to  face  that  loss  if  it  is  in 
the  interest  of  the  great  cause  which  lies  nearest  to  their  hearts. 
Some  of  the  medical  faculty  are,  however,  very  keen  in  their  de- 
sire to  continue  teaching  in  Mandarin,  believing  that  such  a 
school  in  the  Yangtz;e  Valley  is  indispen.sable,  and  others  of 
them  urge  that  they  are  willing  to  join  in  the  union  in  Shang- 

464 


hai  not  for  the  sake  of  the  union  itself,  but  to  assure  the  main- 
tenance of  the  missionary  spirit  and  purpose  in  the  resulting 
school.  Final  decision  as  to  what  it  is  best  that  the  Js'auking 
faculty'  should  do  must  await  the  settlement  of  the  plans  of  the 
China  Medical  Board  for  Shanghai. 

The  second  urgent  plea  of  the  medical  missionary'  body'  with 
relation  to  the  work  of  the  China  Medical  Board  is  that  in  the 
matter  of  salaries  the  new  appointees  in  the  medical  schools 
.shall  be  upon  the  missionary'  basis.  The  reasonableness  of  that 
request  is  evident.  The  experience  of  a change  of  policy'  in  this 
regard  has  been  very  disquieting  to  them.  It  is  doubtful  wheth- 
er any'  other  one  measure  would  do  so  much  toward  maintaining 
the  missionary'  spirit  in  the  whole  enterprise.  If  the  mission 
boards  can  find  men  qualified  for  the  positions  and  willing  to 
.serve  on  the  missionary'-salary'  basis,  it  will  not  be  probable  that 
the  China  Me<lical  Board  will  desire  to  establish  higher  .salaries. 
But  if  qualified  men  can  only'  be  obtained  by'  more  liberal  sal- 
aries, we  can  hardly'  protest  against  their  being  offered,  and 
some  ba.sis  of  harmonious  co-operation  between  groups  of  men 
working  on  different  terms  must  be  sought.  This  is  evidently  a 
problem  which  cannot  be  solved  by  dogmatic  decision  before- 
liand  but  must  be  worked  out  by'  experience.  In  relation  to  this 
and  other  vexing  questions  which  will  undoubtedly'  come  up  in 
connection  with  the  operations  of  the  China  Medical  Board,  it 
will  do  much  to  prevent  misunderstandings  and  to  secure  har- 
mony', if  the  mi.ssionary  bofly'  can  be  kept  fully  informed  of  every' 
development  and  thus  enabled  to  know,  as  fully'  as  possible,  all 
the  con.siderations  that  enter  into  the  final  deci.sion  of  questions 
.so  vitally'  affecting  their  lives  and  work. 

When  we  reache<l  Shanghai  we  were  fortunate  to  be  able  to 
attend  meetings  of  the  China  Council  and  to  discuss  these  ques- 
tions thoroughly'  with  its  members.  It  was  no  .small  privilege 
to  meet  .so  able  a Ixxh'  of  men  giving  theni.selves  enthusiastically' 
and  uns’elfishly  to  the  Lord’s  work.  Whatever  sacrifices  are  nec- 
essaiy'  to  carry  that  work  foi-ward  they'  are  ready  to  make. 

At  Nanh.suchow  we  found  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Wiltsie  just  arrived 
and  l)eginning  their  langnage  .stmly.  They'  are  very  welcome  ad- 
ditions to  the  small  but  enthusiastic  staff  of  the  Kiang  An  Mi.s- 
sion.  We  trust  that  a great  future  of  noble  .service  lies  before 
them.  In  Ilwai  Yuen  we  had  the  givat  pleasure  of  meeting  our 
old  friend.  Dr.  Samuel  Cochran,  and  seeing  his  work  in  Hope 
Hos[)ital.  As  mend)ers  of  the  Central  Church,  Mrs.  Bovaird  and 
I have  a special  interes-t  in  all  the  work  of  the  Hwai  Yuen  sta- 
tion, and  may  l>e  j)ardoned  if  we  viewed  it  through  ro.se-tinted 
gla.sses.  Without  <loubt  the  hospital  is  one  of  the  best  to  be 
found  in  China  and  Dr.  Cochran  a leader  of  his  profession.  Ev- 
ery'where  one  goes  in  mi.s.sion  circles  he  finds  Dr.  Cochran’s  work 
well  known.  One  of  the  rea.son.s  for  this  came  out  when  at  the 
close  of  our  one  day  in  Hwai  Yuen  he  invited  me  over  to  the 
hospital  at  half-past  eleven  at  night  to  see  under  the  microscope 

465 


a ven'  unu.sual  (lisi)lay  of  tlio  ova  of  asoaris  huubricoides  I To 
be  interested  in  intestinal  j)arasites  at  that  time  of  nifiht  calls 
for  Just  such  rare  scientific  s|»ii-it  as  be  has.  It  may  well  be 
that  Dr.  (’ochran’s  attainments  will  lead  to  his  l>eing:  re^juisi- 
tioned  for  .some  j)art  in  the  new  (Hlucational  program  elsewhere 
than  Ilwai  Yuen.  The  bricks  foi-  the  new  women’s  hosjdtal  in 
Hwai  Yuen  are  on  the  groiiml  and  only  the  return  of  the  plans 
from  Xew  York  is  awaited  before  beginning  the  erection  of  the 
building.  With  that  addition  the  plant  of  the  mission  will  be  a 
ver}’  complete  one. 

In  Hoochow  Dr.  Anderson  has  returned  and  resumed  her 
work  in  the  Nathaniel  T<K>ker  Hosjjital.  Dr.  Humphrey, 
in  view  of  her  pro.spective  marriage,  was  just  about  to  leave,  and 
the  work  will  again  devolve  upon  Dr.  An<ler.sou  alone.  From 
the  history  of  the  institution  it  seems  imi»o.ssible  to  keep  the 
women  phy.sicians  in  that  station.  There  is  grave  danger  that 
Dr.  Anderson  herself,  by  reason  of  her  health,  may  not  be  able 
long  to  continue  her  service.  In  view  of  the.se  facts  the  pro- 
position to  unite  the  work  with  the  women's  work  of  the  South- 
ern Methodi.st  Board  .should  be  .seriously  considere<l.  To  our 
hurried  examination  the  women's  hosi)ital  and  me<lical  school 
conducted  by  Drs.  Polk  and  Love  of  that  Board  seemed  to  have 
unu.sual  vigor  and  promise  in  it,  but  like  every  other  women’s 
entei‘])rise  in  China  they  are  in  need  of  help  both  in  staff  and 
fuucLs.  Our  co-operation  would  therefore  be  welcome  to  them. 

The  work  being  done  in  Soochow  in  the  me<lical  education  of 
women,  both  as  nurses  and  physicians,  belongs  at  pre.sent  wholly 
to  the  Southern  Metlnxlist  Boai-d,  but  if  we  joine(l  them  in  hos- 
pital work  it  would  naturally  follow  that  we  .should  take  some 
share  in  the  broader  effort,  so  that  a knowk^dge  of  the  actual 
conditions  is  of  importance  to  us.  They  are  now  conducting 
classes  in  medicine  and  a training  school  for  nurses.  The  hos- 
pital has  GO  beds,  for  medical,  surgical,  and  obstetrical  cases, 
the  latter  being  a separate  department  with  special  equipment. 
It  has  a small,  but  active,  clinical  laboratory  and  also  a small 
chemical  laboratory'.  All  the  buildings  are  of  comparatively 
light  construction  in  the  pavilion  style,  .so  that  they  do  not 
represent  heavy  outlay  ami  a<lditions  are  easily  made.  The  bur- 
den of  the  hospital  and  school  work  has  been  mainly  carried  by 
Drs.  Polk  and  Love.  An  American,  Miss  Forman,  assists  them 
by  taking  charge  of  the  finances  and  aiding  in  the  training 
school.  They  have  also  received  valuable  help  in  the  educational 
work  from  Drs.  Park  and  Russell  who  conduct  a large  general 
ho.spital  and  dispen.sary  on  an  adjoining  compound.  (This  hos- 
pital also  has  a women’s  ward ; there  ai*e  plenty  of  patients  for 
both  institutions.  ) They  have  also  some  of  their  own  graduates 
jis  assistants,  so  that  all  told  the  school  has  a faculty  of  nine. 
The  coyirse  covers  five  yeai*s  ami  is  given  in  English.  Students 
are  advised  to  have  at  least  oue  year’s  high  school  work  befoi-e 
entering,  but  may  be  accepte<l  without  this  after  pa.ssiug  an  ex- 
luniuation  on  elementary  subjects. 

466 


At  ijre.sent  there  are  but  two  classes  in  the  women’s  medical 
school,  a senior  class  of  five  and  a first-year  class  of  six.  Tt  is 
not  ]»ossible  foi-  llie.in  with  llieir  limited  staff  to  take  classes 
yearly.  It  was  interesting-  to  learn  that  there  were  twelve  posi- 
tions ojven  to  the  five  members  of  the  «radnating-  class,  Dr.  Mary 
Stone  ottering  to  take  the  whole  cla.ss  into  her  work  at  Kin  Kiang. 
Poorly  prei)ared  as  these  young  women  must  be  admitted  to  be, 
both  in  their  preparatory  education  and  in  their  professional 
course,  there  appears  to  be  much  work  for  them  to  do.  Dr.  An- 
derson is  hoping  to  secure  one  of  the  graduating  cla.ss  to  helj) 
her  in  the  emergency  created  by  Dr.  Humphreys’  withdrawal. 

The  decision  of  the  China  Medical  Commission  that  it  is  not 
wise  to  fo.'iter  the  medical  education  of  women  until  the  under- 
lying ediK-ational  structure  has  been  considerably  strengthened 
has  already  been  referred  to.  They  evidently  regarded  the  strug- 
gle properly  to  educate  the  poorly-prepared  girls  now  seeking 
medical  instruction,  despite  the  .succe.ss  of  some  of  the  graduates 
of  the  present  weak  schools,  as  productive  of  too  meager  results 
to  justify  sui)porting  the  undertaking.  They  suggest  that  such 
women  as  are  j)eculiarly  fitted  for  the  profession  .should  be  sent 
abi-oad  for  their  me<lical  education.  They  also  make  a strong 
])oint  in  the  fact  that  the  development  of  medical  schools  for 
women,  unlass  the  stainlards  are  high,  will  tend  to  diminish  the 
importance  of  the  nursing  profes.sion,  .so  that  onl^’  women  of 
<lualifications  lower  than  those  retpiired  by  the  m^ical  school 
will  enter  that  calling.  They  a<ld  that  at  the  pre.seut  time  in 
China  high  grade  nnr.ses  are  as  much  needed  as  are  women  phy- 
sicians, and  it  is  e.s.sential  that  the  nursing  lu-ofes.siou  should  be 
recruited  from  girls  who  are  of  good  social  standing,  and  of  the 
be.st  po.s,sible  education.  It  is  also  true  that  even  if  the  means 
were  at  hand  to  j)rovide  n(*(“<l(Hl  e(pii])inent  for  women’s  medical 
schools,  it  would  probably  be  imj)Ossible  to  augment  material  I v 
the  teaching  staffs,  because  of  the  diminishing  numbers  of  women 
studying  mediciin*  in  America  and  the  consHpient  failure  of  vol- 
\inteers  for  the  mission  ficfids.  Cnless,  therefore,  there  is  j)ro.spect 
of  definite  change  in  the.se  various  conditions  we  should  j)ost- 
pone  (*Horts  to  ])i-omote  the  nuHlical  education  of  women  and 
rather  aim  to  develop  ii-aining  schools  for  nurses.  And  for  like 
reasons  we  must  aim  to  combine  and  strengthen  the  women’s 
hos])itals  we  already  have  in  the  effort  to  make  them  more  ef- 
ficient, and  better  t(»  (pialify  them  for  the  training  of  nurses. 

With  relation  to  health  conditions  among  our  mis.sionaries 
in  (Miina  conditions  are  on  the  whole  sati.sfactory.  The  climatic 
conditions  vary  so  greatly  within  the  wi<le  compass  of  the  Em- 
pire that  it  is  ini]»ossible  to  deal  ad^piately  with  them  in  a re- 
port of  this  character,  l-’urtherinore,  the  more  ex])erience  one 
has  with  the  medical  woik  of  the  Hoard  the  more  clear  it  be 
comes  that  climate  after  all  is  one  of  the  minor  factors  in  the 
problem.  It  is  als(>  suri»rising  to  lind  how  safely  on  the  whole 
missionaries  live  in  the  densely  populated  centers  of  China  in 

467 


the  midst  of  onormous  numbors  of  people  entirely  lacking  in 
any  kno\vl(*<lg(‘  of  liygiene.  And  yet  they  do  not  entirely  encape 
tl)e  perils  of  sncli  a situation.  Occasionally  some  pay  the  fH^n- 
alties  of  the  (*x]»osiii'e  incident  to  their  sitiiati<»u;  as  the  deatlis 
of  thrw*  members  of  the  faculty  of  the  l'(*king  Medical  School 
within  recent  years  have  borne  ])ainful  witness.  It  is  a satis- 
faction to  know  that  in  this  relation  the  B<»ard  is  taking  every 
possible  ])recantion  to  protect  its  aj)pointees.  Experience  em- 
phasizes strongly  the  need  of  insisting  upon  repeated  vaccination 
and  the  anti  typhoid  inmiunization. 

While  in  Peking  I was  asked  to  examine  Miss  Xewton  of  Pao- 
tingfu  and  to  determine  whether  her  condition  demande^l  her  re- 
turn to  the  United  States.  Dr.  Mackey  had  written  a verj'  complete 
history  of  Miss  Newton’s  condition  and  requested  my  judgment. 
The  latter  had  had  several  attacks  of  ])recordial  pain  associated 
with  signs  of  heart  failure,  and  had  also  suffered  from  dysentery. 
At  the  time  the  dysenteric  .symptoms  had  subsided,  Miss  Newton 
looked  and  felt  well,  and  the  most  careful  examination  (extend- 
ing over  an  hour  and  a half ) failed  to  show  any  definite  disease 
of  the  heart  or  arteries,  or  indeed  any  physical  condition  to 
account  for  the  heart  failure.  In  view  of  these  facts  1 advi.sed 
Miss  Newton  to  remain  at  her  po.st,  with  the  provision  that  she 
should  be  relieved  of  the  duties  of  treasurer  and  confine  herself 
to  the  school  work,  which  she  enjo3'ed  and  felt  quite  equal  to. 
It  was  my  expectation  that  she  would  gradualh"  gain  strength 
and  escape  the  rex)etition  of  the  attacks  which  had  caused  alarm. 
Just  as  we  were  embarking  to  leave  Shanghai,  some  three  weeks 
later,  I was  shocked  to  leani  from  Dr.  Cunningham  that  Miss 
Newtfiu  was  dead.  There  has  been  no  opportunity  to  learn  what 
transpired  between  the  time  of  my  examination  and  Miss  New- 
ton’s death.  It  is  quite  clear  that  she  was  suffering  from  more 
serious  disease  than  1 discoveretl.  Just  what  it  may  have  been 
I cannot  without  further  information  surmise.  In  eveiy  exam- 
ination which  I was  called  upon  to  make  in  the  field  I was  made 
painfully  conscious  of  the  conditions  under  which  the  mission- 
ary ijhysician  must  often  reach  decisiou.s,  conditions  which 
make  it  necessary  for  him  to  reach  a decision  without  the  aid  of 
imijortant  data.  It  may  be  that  had  I had  fuller  information  I 
would  have  more  accurately  forecast  the  future  in  Miss  Newton’s 
case.  Yet  of  that  I am  not  at  all  confident.  Some  of  these  con- 
ditions .sinii)ly  baffle  us,  until  i>ost-mortem  examination  shows 
the  true  situation.  With  relation  to  Miss  Newton,  Dr.  Mackey 
did  her  full  duty.  The  respon.sibility  for  Miss  Newton’s  remain- 
ing ill  China  re.sts  entirely  upon  myself.  I wi.sh  to  make  clear 
that  that  decision  was  reachetl  only  after  full  consideration  of 
her  history  and  as  thorough  aii  examination  as  the  situation 
permitted. 


468 


5.  PROPERTY,  TREASURY  AND  BUSINESS  QUESTIONS 


DWIGHT  H.  DAY 


Our  party  arrived  iu  Mukdeu,  Manchuria,  Saturday  evening, 
September  18th,  from  Syen  Chun,  Korea,  the  journey  occupying 
just  twelve  hours.  It  was  an  interesting  study  to  go  from  the 
Japanese  Concession  surrounding  the  railroad  station  and  hotel, 
where  substantial,  modern  buildings  have  been  erected,  through 
the  great  seething,  heathen  city  with  its  Chinese  multitudes  and 
out  on  the  other  side  to  the  compound  of  the  United  Free  Church 
Mi.ssion  where  Dr.  Dugald  Christie  conducts  a remarkably  ef- 
ficient medical  work,  and  where  a fine  outlook  is  obtained  over 
some  of  the  bloodie.st  battlefields  of  the  Russo-Japanese  War. 
To  Dr.  Christie’s  courtesy  and  that  of  his  associates  our  party 
owes  a most  delightful  Sabbath. 

The  itinerary  in  China  for  the  majority  of  the  party  was  as 
follows : 


Sept.  19th  In  Mukden 

“ 20th  and  21st Railroad  to  Peking  with  stop-over  at 

night  

“ 22nd-24th In  I’eking 

“ 25th  Railroad  to  Tientsin  (delayed)  

“ 26th  In  Tientsin 

“ 27th  Railroad  to  Tsinan-fii  

“ 29lh  Railroad  Tsinan-fu  to  Hwai  Yuen  with 

stoi)-over  at  Nansuchow 

‘ aOth-Oet.  1 \t  Hwai  Yuen  

Oct.  1st Raili'oad  to  Nanking 

“ 2nd-4th In  Nanking  

“ 4th  Railroad  to  Sooehow  

“ 5th  In  Sooehow  

“ 5th  Railroad  to  Shanghai  and  night  boat  to 

Ningpo  

“ 6th  In  Ningpo  (night  boat  to  Shanghai)  . . . 

“ 7th  Railroad  to  Hangchow  

“ 7th-9th In  Hangchow 

“ 9th  Railroad  to  Shanghai  

“ 10th-15th In  .Shanghai 


Sailed  at  .5  I*.  M.  Oct.  1.5th  for  Kobe,  .Tapan. 
.Spent  in  travel,  and  at  Mukden  and  Tientsin . . . . 
Si)ent  in  Mission  Stations  


1 day 

2 days 

3 

1 day 
1 

1 

1 

114  days 
14  day 
2%  days 
14  day 

yg  “ 

yg  '• 

1 

yg  “ 

2 days 
14  day 

6 days 

914  days 
171/2  “ 


Total  number  of  days  in  the  China  district 27  days 

By  tills  itinerary  tlie  Depufation  was  enabled  to  see  .something 
of  the  work  and  meet  many  of  tlie  missionaries  of  the  Noidh 
China,  Shantung,  Kiang-an  and  Central  China  Mission.s.  Mem- 
bers of  South  Cliina  and  Hainan  ^fissions  al.so  were  present  in 
Shainghai,  attending  the  meetings  of  the  China  Council. 


THE  CHINA  .STATIONS 

A problem  that  has  been  troubling  North  China  is  that  of 
the  treasurership  of  the  mission.  Dr.  Wheriw  desires  to  give  up 

469 


the  responsibilitias  of  the  office,  which  he  has  carried  so  well  for 
several  years  and  he  should  be  allowed  to  do  so,  in  order  that  he 
may  devote  his  time  wholly  to  his  important  translation  work, 
and  in  view  of  the  fact  that  he  is  necessarily  absent  from  Peking 
for  long  periods  at  a time.  There  is  no  one  now  in  any  of  the 
four  stations  fitted  or  free  to  act  as  mission  treasurer,  in  fact, 
the  stations  even  find  it  difficult  to  get  their  local  station  ac- 
counts taken  care  of.  If  a mission  treasurer  could  be  found,  it 
would  be  possible  so  to  centralize  the  finance  and  accounting 
work  of  the  mi.ssion  as  to  relieve  station  treasurers  of  a large 
part  of  the  work  they  are  now  doing.  A suggestion  was  made 
at  the  mission  meeting  in  Peking  that  a man  be  sent  out  who 
would  act  as  mission  treasurer  for  both  North  China  and  Shan- 
tung mi.ssion, s.  Another  proposal  was  that  a trea.snrer  and 
agent  be  located  at  Tientsin  to  take  care  of  the  North  China 
treasury  work  and  possibly  that  of  Shantung,  as  well  as  the 
agency  business  at  the  port  of  entiw,  which  now  entails  charges 
against  the  missionaries  which  are  burden.some.  However,  it 
seemed  wisest  to  attempt  first  to  consummate  the  plan  proposed 
some  time  ago  of  having  the  mission’s  treasuiw  work  centralized 
at  Shanghai,  under  the  China  Fi.scal  Agent,  thus  eliminating 
the  necessity  for  a mission  treasurer  and  greatly  relieving  station 
treasurers.  After  examining  into  the  matter  at  Shanghai  and 
consulting  with  the  Fiscal  Agent  there,  it  was  decided  to  adopt 
this  course,  beginning  with  April  1,  1916. 

Titles  to  the  Board’s  property  in  China  are  safely  secure<l  by 
the  purcha.se  of  all  interests  and  claims  of  private  individuals 
and  having  deeds  registered  in  the  local  Yamen  and  recorde<l 
in  the  nearest  T’.  S.  Con.sulate.  Great  difficulty  is  experience<l 
however  in  obtaining  land,  partly  because  of  the  innate  reluc- 
tance of  Orientals  to  part  with  their  holdings,  partly  because 
oftentimes  the  land  has  been  detlicated  to  mounds  for  the  dead, 
and  partly  because  the  desirable  tracts  are  frequently  divided 
up  among  a great  many  different  owners,  lu  acquiring  the 
forty  acres  for  the  site  of  the  new  T’niversiry  buildings  at  Tsinan- 
fu  it  was  necessaiw  to  deal  with  some  sixty  owners.  This  .site  is 
an  eminently  satisfactoiw  one  and  well  located  just  outside  the 
city  wall  in  the  South  Gate  suburb,  separated  from  the  plant  of 
the  Fnion  Medical  School  and  Hospital  only  by  the  wall  itself. 
A gate  at  this  place  will  serve  to  make  communication  easy.  In 
very  few  instances  are  our  compounds  symmetrical  and  well  laid 
out,  or  large  enough  to  permit  of  a happy  architectural  arrange- 
ment of  the  buildings.  The  reasons  for  this  are  obvious  and  some 
have  been  mentioned  already:  ill  the  selection  of  small  sites  in 
the  early  days  and  the  inabilirt  to  enlarge;  (2)  they  have  been 
built  up  by  gradual  additions  from  time  to  time  and  (3)  lack 
of  sufficient  funds  to  purchase  adecpiate  and  well-located  tracts. 
There  is  opportunity  to  do  much  better  work  in  this  regard 
where  all  the  buildings  can  be  planned  at  one  time  and  placed 
on  suitable  grounds  as  is  the  case  with  Shantung  and  Nanking 

470 


Universities  and  as  Hangchow  has  already  done.  The  symmetry 
and  architectural  unity  of  the  American  Board  compound  in 
Peking  and  of  the  China  Inland  Mission  in  Shanghai  are  real 
assets  and  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  as  we  extend  our  compounds 
or  plan  new  ones  we  can  improve  over  the  past  in  this  regard, 
even  in  the  smaller  stations.  It  should  be  added  that  some  of 
the  building  work  of  the  missions  conducted  by  missionaries  who 
make  no  pretense  to  scientific  knowledge  or  skill  in  such  mat- 
ters is  remarkably  good  and  could  scarcely  be  improved  upon. 
But  in  such  cases  the  time  and  energ;v^  of  the  missionary  has 
been  largely  absorbed  in  the  building  and  he  has  been  compelled 
to  curtail  hLs  regular  work  which  is  always  urgently  demanding 
all  the  strength  he  can  give  it  and  for  which  he  may  have  been 
.‘specially  trained  by  long  years  of  preparation  and  study. 

The  China  Fiscal  Agency  at  Shanghai  under  which  the  ac- 
counts of  Central  China,  Kiang-an  and  Shantung  Missions  are 
centralized,  thus  eliminating  the  necessity  for  mission  trea.siir- 
ers  in  those  missions,  is  working  out  satisfactorily.  Station 
treasurers  from  all  the  fields  testified  to  the  lightening  of  their 
l)urdens  and  the  great  saving  of  time  to  them  under  the  new  sys- 
tem. As  has  already  been  stated,  a fourth  mission.  North  China, 
will  be  included  beginning  with  the  next  fiscal  year.  Some  de- 
tails re<iuire  still  to  be  worked  out,  as  for  instance,  underbuild- 
ing and  fortifying  the  man  who  now  has  sole  responsibility,  and 
as  time  goes  on  it  is  probable  that  the  .\v.stem  can  be  further  ex- 
tend(Hl  but  already  it  has  ]»roved  its  value  and  marks  a long 
step  in  advance. 

Tli(‘  Soutli  Cliina  Mission  is  calling  urgently  for  a treasurer 
an<l  so  far  it  lias  not  ,s(*<*nie<l  pi'acticable  to  include  it  in  the  gen- 
eral China  system;  it  is  necessary  therefore  to  consider  the 
(|nestion  of  locating  a man  trained  in  accounting  work  at  Can- 
ton, to  handle  South  China  and  probably  Hainan  accounts  and 
attend  to  the  agimcy  work  incident  uimn  the  arrival  of  mission- 
aries’ goods  at  the  jxirt  of  Hong  Kong,  llecently  the  arrival  of 
one  larg(*  shijiment  of  goods  r(M|uired  six  full  days  of  the  time 
of  the  jiresent  treasurer  who  is  one  of  the  teachers  in  the  Theo- 
logical (h)llege  before  it  could  be  clearixl  and  distributed  to  the 
country  stations,  and  all  this  time  the  work  with  his  cla.sst's 
was  interrupted.  This  is  not  fair  either  to  jirofessor  or  students 
and  is  illnsti-ative  of  the  lost  energy  resulting  from  the  necessity 
of  trying  to  covei-  two  utterly  different  departments  of  work  by 
the  time  and  talents  that  are  r(*<piir(Ml  for  one. 

A matter  that  has  engaged  the  attention  of  field  treasurers  as 
well  as  of  all  those  engaged  in  buildiTig  ojierations  in  China  is 
that  of  the  rate  of  exchange  fixed  by  the  Board  for  turning  gold 
into  Mexicans  for  building  ojierations.  In  May,  Ifill,  the  Board 
vot(sl  to  make  all  ajijiroiiriations  for  jiropertA'  in  native  cur- 
rency. There  is  cordial  agreement  and  acceptance  of  this  action 
among  the  missions  as  being  the  best  method.  However,  soon 
after  the  action  was  taken,  and  an  arbitrary  rate  for  converting 

471 


}?old  amounts  into  native  currency  was  fixed,  the  rates  for 
China  Mexicans  suffered  rather  sudden  and  violent  fluctuations, 
and  have  continued  to  do  so  with  more  or  less  irregularity  ever 
since.  The  trouble  on  the  field  has  arisen  from  the  fact  that  the 
iHimber  of  Mexicans  resulting  from  the  i*ate  fixed  by  the  Board, 
has  fallen  in  some  cases  far  short  of  the  amount  that  could  have 
been  obtained  had  the  gold  amount  been  applied  on  the  field  at 
cui-rent  rates.  Sometimes  there  would  be  a “loss”  of  several 
hundred  Mexicans  in  one  aj)propriation.  The  Board,  of  course, 
does  not  desire  to  build  up  an  exchange  account  at  the  expense 
of  building  appropriations  and  it  has  already  taken  action  look- 
ing to  relief  in  some  cases.  There  are  still  others  in  which  sep- 
arate recommendations  T^dll  be  submitted  to  the  Board  for  action. 
Either  the  rate  as  fixed  by  the  Board  will  need  to  be  changed 
more  fre<iuently,  and  in  accordance  with  the  current  rates  as 
reported  in  the  drafts  sold,  or  a current  rate  for  Mexicans  can 
be  obtaine<l  from  the  oriental  banks  in  New  York  on  the  day 
the  appropriation  is  made  and  a rate  for  the  appropriation  and 
• expenditure  of  the  money  fixed  in  accordance  therewith. 

The  plant  of  the  Mission  Press  at  Shanghai  was  carefully  in- 
spected and  its  financial  condition  examined.  The  balance  sheet 
for  the  year,  lately  published,  shows  the  best  results  of  any 
year  in  a long  series,  and  speaks  well  for  the  careful  and  un- 
tiring management  of  Mr.  McIntosh.  The  Prass  has  this  year 
celebrated  its  Seventieth  Anniversary’  which  has  been  commem- 
orated in  an  attractive  historical  pamphlet  by  the  manager. 
Competition  with  other  presses  in  Shanghai  is  .severe  both  as 
to  contracts  for  printing  and  in  the  matter  of  retaining  the 
trained  labor,  and  it  mu.st  be  kept  in  mind  that  the  Mission 
Press  supplies  a great  deal  of  material  for  mission  work  on 
which  there  is  no  profit  whatever.  The  Board  and  the  missions 
hold  themseh’es  ready  to  combine  the  Mission  Pi‘ess  with  the 
Methodist  Press.  Definite  proposals  looking  to  this  end  are  un- 
der consideration.  A combination  has  already  been  effected  of 
the  Book  Sales  Department  of  both  Presses,  under  the  name  of 
The  Mission  Book  Co.,  and  the  union  store  is  proving  a succ-ess. 

At  Peking,  T.sinanfu,  Hwai  Yuen,  Nanking,  Shanghai  and 
Hangchow  opportunity  was  given  for  meeting  with  Chinese  pas- 
tors, evangelists,  advanced  students  and  leaders  in  the  Church 
and  these  occasions  always  proved  interasting  and  informing. 
Especially  was  the  good-fellowship  with  these  Christian  broth- 
ers enjoyed  when  through  their  courtesy  we  were  invited  to  dine 
with  them,  or  when  in  conference  conceraing  the  welfare  of  the 
churches  we  were  able  to  judge  of  fheir  Christian  zeal  and  sta- 
bility. Again  and  again  it  was  impressed  upon  one  how  high 
are  the  purpo.ses  of  these  men  and  how  deeply  they  appreciate 
what  the  forces  are  which  alone  are  going  to  be  able  to  mould 
their  people  aright.  Nor  are  they  iinder  any  delusions  concern- 
ing the  political  developments  of  the  past  year  in  China.  They 
appreciate  the  momentous  issues  that  are  waiting  to  be  decided 

472 


during  these  months  and  in  all  their  expressions  they  reveal  an 
admirable  patriotism  and  confidence  in  a happy  outcome  for 
their  country,  buttressed  by  that  remarkable  oriental  quality  of 
unshakable  patience.  There  is  a fibre,  a soundness,  a sincerity 
in  the  Chinese  character  that  is  very  attractive  and  makes  work- 
ing with  them  seem  greatly  worth  while. 

There  .seems  to  be  coordination  in  the  China  work,  fostered 
and  promoted  by  the  China  Council  whose  activities  cannot  be 
too  highly  commended.  The  conservative  attitude  of  the  mem- 
bers, their  care  and  wisdom  in  handling  a multitudinous  num- 
ber of  details,  and  their  intimate  knowledge  of  conditions  in  the 
China  field  lead  one  to  hope  that  more  matters  will  be  decided 
by  them  rather  than  be  referred  to  New  York. 

There  are  some  undeveloped  opportunities  just  now  in  China 
of  a special  character  that  appeal  most  strongly  to  one’s  desires 
to  go  in  and  posse.ss.  Whether  these  will  be  open  indefinitely,  or 
until  in  process  of  time  some  of  them  can  be  included  in  the 
program  of  the  missions,  is  a question.  Exten.sion  of  the  evan- 
gelistic work  and  the  gathering  together  of  small  congregations 
in  a large  number  of  cities  and  towns,  under  the  young  men 
who  have  had  training  in  our  own  theological  schools  seems  to 
l>e  just  what  ought  to  be  done  when  all  the  elements  are  present. 
Some  other  needs  in  connection  with  educational  work  such  as 
a little  larger  appropriation  for  at  least  one  of  the  big  universi- 
ties seem  imperative.  The  general  policy  of  the  Board  and  the 
missions  for  the  present  must  be  kept  in  mind,  namely  to 
strengthen  the  existing  work,  rather  than  project  new  work 
which  will  make  new  demands  upon  the  available  funds. 

The  zeal  and  effective  endeavors  of  the  mis.sionarie.s,  as  well 
as  their  alertness  in  grasping  new  opportunitie.s,  inspires  one 
with  great  confidence  in  them  and  it  remains  for  us  at  home 
to  sustain  them  in  i)rayer  and  by  sacrificial  gifts. 

[From  “The  China  Medical  Journal, " May,  191//.'] 

CHINESE  .VNI)  ENGLISH 

\V.  II.  VEN  ABLK,  M.D.,  KASHING 

In  order  to  discu.'vs  intelligently  the  que.stion  of  the  language  to  he  employed 
as  the  medium  of  instruction  in  our  medical  schools,  we  must  begin  with  a 
clear  idea  of  the  object  we  have  in  mind  and  we  must  have  a thorough  knowl- 
edge of  the  conditions  under  which  we  are  working. 

We  can  never  reach  an  agreement  on  this  question,  if  we  have  different  ob- 
jects in  view  or  if  we  have  different  conceptions  of  the  circumstances  under 
which  we  are  working. 

.Most  of  us  who  have  wrestled  with  this  problem  in  the  past  have  been  on 
common  ground  as  to  the  object  in  view.  We  wished  to  train  doctors  to  go  out 
and  heal  the  sick,  the  lame,  the  blind;  to  help  us  in  our  hospitals  and  dispen- 
saries to  treat  the  thousands  that  crowd  upon  us;  to  show  the  Chinese  by  con- 
crete, living  illustrations  that  there  was  something  better  than  their  own  doc- 
tors cxiuld  give  them  in  the  way  of  medical  science.  In  attempting  to  carry  out 
this  object,  we  have  been  hampered  by  such  great  di  culties  that  we  have 
fallen  far  short  of  the  standard  of  medical  education  that  we  had  in  our  minds, 
but  we  have  not  .shifted  our  ground  in  regard  to  the  object  in  view. 

473 


China  is  an  immense  eonntry  and  newls  a large  number  of  doctors  and,  in 
order  to  meet  this  need,  we  want  to  train  a large  number.  Jf  there  is  need  of 
as  great  a proi)ortion  of  doctors  in  China  as  in  other  countries,  several  hun- 
dred thousand  will  have  to  be  supi)lied,  and.  even  if  our  share  comes  to  only  a 
hundred  thousand  or  fifty  thousand,  we  still  have  a jiretty  big  task  before  us. 
In  case  someone  might  consider  this  estimate  too  large,  we  will  argue  from  thu 
basis  of  the  training  of  ten  or  twenty  thousand  dor-tors  as  the  task  set  before 
our  missionary  medical  schools. 

Having  stated  the  object  in  view,  we  now  come  to  the  question  of  the  con- 
ditions under  which  we  are  to  work,  .^re  we  to  give  this  army  of  future 
workers'  their  medical  education  in  their  own  language  or  in  a foreign  language? 
It  is  a fact  that  cannot  be  contradicted,  that  a person  acquires  a knowledge  of 
any  subject  more  readily  in  his  own  than  in  a foreign  language.  I will  even 
go  further  and  say  that,  leaving  out  the  picked  men  among  our  students  the 
rank  and  file  will  not  only  learn  medicine  less  readily  and  less  perfectly  in  a 
foreign  language,  but  a good  many  of  them  will  not  be  able  to  master  the 
science  of  medicine  in  any  satisfactory  sense,  unle.ss  it  is  taugnt  In  their  own 
language.  The  average  mind  is  not  able  to  carry  the  double  burden  of  thinking 
in  a strange  language  and  at  the  same  time  acquiring  a science  that  is  entirel> 
new.  Putting  forth  the  mental  effort  required  to  extract  the  exact  meaning 
from  the  foreign  idiom  leaves  less  brain  power  to  give  to  the  subject  matter. 

tVe  are  in  great  danger  of  overestimating  the  ability  of  an  Oriental  to  ac- 
quire an  occidental  language,  or  vice  versa.  Our  Chine.se  students  often  uncon- 
sciously deceive  us,  as  well  as  themselves,  in  regard  to  their  knowledge  of 
English. 

I remember  a young  man  who  studied  English  for  six  or  seven  years  in  a 
mission  school  and  afterwards  became  a teacher  of  English  in  a government 
school.  His  knowledge  of  English  was  above  the  average,  and  he  could  talk  in 
English  intelligently  on  almost  any  topic.  One  day  he  suri)rised  me  by  asking 
me  if  1 could  lend  him  a book  in  English,  written  in  words  of  one  syllable.  He 
confes.sed  that  he  could  read  the  average  book  or  newspaper  only  with  the 
greatest  difficulty.  I mention  this  as  one  instance  only.  For  years  I have  had 
intimate  friends  among  the  Chinese  who  have  a good  working  knowledge  of 
English  for  the  pur])ose  required,  such  as  work  in  the  customs,  postal  service, 
or  telegraph  service.  The  mental  ability  of  mast  of  them  is  above  the  average, 
and  yet  I do  not  believe  there  is  one  of  them  whose  knowledge  of  English  idiom 
is  such  as  to  enable  him  to  read  a medical  book  intelligently.  'V^’hile  I was 
studying  in  New  York.  I found  the  same  thing  to  be  true  among  some  of  the 
Chinese  students  who  were  taking  a medical  course  there.  Even  some  of  them 
— who  were  able  to  pass  their  examinations — had  gaps  here  and  there  in  their 
medical  knowledge  caiLsed  by  an  occasional  failure  to  grasp  the  English  idiom, 
that  made  me  feel  that  they  would  have  made  better  doctors  if  they  had  stu- 
died medicine  in  their  own  language.  Do  we  not  find  the  same  thing  to  be  true 
in  our  own  study  of  the  Chinese  language?  Many  of  us  have  studied  it  faith- 
fully and  earnestly  for  ten,  fifteen,  twenty,  or  twenty-five  years  and  can  talk 
with  a good  deal  of  freedom  on  almost  any  topic,  but  how  many  of  us  can  pick 
up  a Chinese  newspaper  and  read  it  with  ease?  It  is  often  argued  that  the 
difficulty  we  have  in  learning  Chinese  constitutes  a strong  argument  for  the 
use  of  English  in  our  medical  schools.  I would  reply  to  this  by  saying  that,  in 
spite  of  the  great  difficulty  of  teaching  medicine  in  Chinese,  it  is  not  to  be 
compared  with  the  difficulty  experienced  by  our  students  in  trying  to  study 
medicine  in  a foreign  language.  In  teaching  medicine  in  Chinese  we  have  the 
foreign  language  difficulty  to  contend  with,  but  we  have  the  advantage  of  being 
familiar  with  the  subject  matter  to  Ik*  taught.  Our  students,  when  they  study 
in  English,  not  only  have  the  foreign  language  difficulty,  but  also  the  difficult 
of  an  entirely  new  and  strange  subject. 

So  far  I have  dwelt  entirely  on  the  greater  ease  with  which  a knowledge  of 
medicine  may  be  acquired  by  Chinese  students  when  studying  it  in  their  own 
language,  but  I have  not  forgotten  that  the  principal  argument  for  English  is 
based  on  the  supposition  that  the  student  who  has  acquired  his  medical  educa- 
tion through  the  medium  of  English,  immediately  has  opened  up  to  him  a field 
of  medical  literature  as  wide  as  the  English  language  itself.  Again  leaving  out 

47-i 


the  picked  men,  my  experience  with  the  rank  and  file  leads  me  to  the  unalter- 
able conviction  that  the  ma.iority  of  them,  after  they  have  been  dragged  through 
a medical  course  taught  in  English  and  “boosted”  up  to  the  point  of  passing 
I heir  examinations,  will  have  gaps  in  their  medical  knowledge  and  still  greater 
gaps  in  their  knowledge  of  English.  Then  those  who  go  into  practice  will  soon 
be  so  overwhelmed  with  work  that  they  will  forget  a greater  part  of  their 
English,  will  have  little  or  no  use  for  the  i>art  they  do  remember,  and  will  con- 
stantly regi'et  that  they  did  not  study  medicine  in  their  own  language  so  as  to 
give  their  full  mental  strength  to  the  subject  matter. 

Persistent  attempts  to  learn  English  by  medical  students  who  have  not  the 
mental  calibre  to  master  it  thoroughly  not  only  dwarfs  their  knowledge  of 
medicine,  but  prevents  them  from  learning  their  own  language  thoroughly. 
1 leliver  us  from  the  “all  English”  Chinese  who  do  not  know  their  own  lan- 
guage. The  Chinese  themselves  have  commented  unfavorably  on  this  state  of 
affairs  in  some  schools  where  a good  deal  of  stress  is  laid  on  English,  and 
es))ecially  where  scientific  subjects  are  taught  in  English,  and  they  express 
contempt  for  the  pupils  who  are  adepts  in  English  but  poor  in  Chinese.  Most 
of  the  graduates  of  our  Mission  high  schools  have  had  five  or  six  years  of  Eng- 
lish. Taking  the  full  college  course  will  add  four  more  years  to  this.  Now 
take  the  men  of  average  ability  from  among  these  students  (notice  again  care- 
fully that  I except  the  picked  men)  and  see  how  far  their  six  or  ten  years  of 
English  will  take  them  into  our  medical  text  books  written  in  English.  The 
students  who  come  from  those  schools  where  the  different  studies  are  well  pro- 
portioned will  find  themselves  unable  to  make  any  headway  in  English  text 
books.  Those  who  come  from  schools  where  English  is  heavily  emphasized  and 
Chinese  is  well-nigh  ignored  may  have  better  success,  but  they  are  paying  a 
big  price  for  it. 

In  most  inland  places,  where  Chinese  influence  prevails,  the  Inability  of  a 
Chinese  student  or  graduate  to  write  a corivct  letter  in  Chinese  is  usually 
considered  a reproach,  but  in  some  of  the  open  ports,  where  foreign  influence 
prevails,  the  “all  English”  Chinese  sometimes  boast  that  they  cannot  write  a 
letter  in  their  own  language  and  consider  this  inability  evidence  of  a superior 
knowledge  of  English. 

I am  well  aware  that  there  are  men  who  claim  from  their  own  experience 
that  the  English-taught  Chinese  doctors  far  surpass  those  who  are  taught  in 
Chinese.  I think  there  are  two  explanations  of  this  fact.  One  is  that  the 
English-taught  men  are  picked  men,  and  it  is  hardly  fair  to  compare  them  with 
men  of  medium  ability.  The  other  is  tliat.  in  tlie  past,  tho.se  who  have  studied 
medicine  in  Chinese  have  been  tremendously  handicapped  by  the  utterly  iuade- 
(piate  facilities  for  afxpiiring  a medical  education  in  Chine.se.  In  the  past,  the 
English-taught  man  has  had  the  advantage  in  every  way.  Is  it  not  high  time 
for  us  to  remove  the  handicap  of  the  Cliinese-taught  men,  by  manning  and 
wpiipping  our  medical  .schools  more  adecpiately,  and  by  giving  the  Chinese 
more  text  books  in  their  own  language V This  has  long  been  one  of  the  avowed 
objects  of  our  Medical  .\ssociation,  but  lately  this  seems  to  have  been  lost  sight 
of  in  the  mad  chase  of  tlie  will  o’  the  wisp  of  doing  alt  our  medical  teaching  in 
English.  It  certainly  s<-ems  to  be  time  to  call  a halt,  when  tlie  statement  is 
made  that  it  is  impossible  at  present  to  give  a truly  scientific  medical  educa- 
tion in  Chinese.  May  I ask  wliy  several  liundred  medical  missionaries  with 
trained  minds  and  a good  knowledge  of  medicine  are  supposed  to  find  the  Chi- 
nese language  such  a tremendously  difficult  task  that  tliey  simpl.v  fall  down  flat 
liefore  it  and  go  to  teacliing  in  English,  while  thousands  of  partly  trained  Chi- 
nese students  are  supisised  to  liave  sucli  su|ierior  ability  as  to  master  the  in- 
tricacies of  medical  science  in  a language  tliat  they  have  liad  far  less  ojipor- 
tunity  of  aciiuiring  thoroughly,  than  the  average  missionary  has  of  learning 
Chine.se’' 

If  the  teaching  of  medicine  were  all  didactic,  the  language  iliflicult.v  would  be 
niucli  more  smdous.  liut  the  fact  that  the  didactic  teaidiing  is  largely  reduplicated 
by  the  clinical  and  laboratory  teaching  goes  very  far  towards  eliminating  the 
difficulty. 

Then  we  are  told  that  we  ought  to  teach  in  English,  because  it  seems  likely 
that  the  Chine.s<‘  government  medical  schools  will  do  so.  We  might  reply  that 

4T5 


thfiir  doing  so  oonstitutps  a good  reason  for  o\ir  Mt  doing  so.  because  it  leave* 
us  in  the  field  of  teaching  in  Chinese  without  a wmpetitor. 

I am  confident  that,  by  teaching  our  picked  men  in  Knglish,  ami  tlie  rank 
and  file  in  Chineses  we  will  attain  a better  average  me<lical  standard  than  we 
would  by  doing  all  our  teaching  in  Mnglish. 

The  (luestion  of  English  a.s  an  entr:ince  rc(pur<'ment  of  our  medical  schools 
is  very  different  from  the  (juestion  of  using  English  as  the  medium  of  instruc- 
tion. The  learning  of  a foreign  language  has  a distinct  value  in  educating  and 
training  the  mind,  when  it  is  not  pushed  to  the  extent  of  crowding  out  every- 
thing else ; and  .some  knowledge  of  English  is  a decided  advantage  to  a medical 
student,  even  when  all  his  class  work  is  done  in  Chine.se. 

So  far  very  little  has  been  said  about  the  picked  men.  Want  of  time  has 
not  allowed  us  to  give  their  ca.se  as  full  con-sideration  as  it  de.serves.  The 
cause  of  medical  missions  in  China  urgently  needs  English-taught  doctors  both 
to  iranslate  medical  books  and  to  act  as  professors  in  our  medical  .schools. 

Such  work  requires  men  of  sui>erior  ability,  and  we  want  to  see  medical 
.schools  established  where  only  such  men  are  admitte<l,  but  the  aims  and  influ- 
ences of  these  schools  should  be  such  as  to  make  it  possible  to  secure  a large 
proportion  of  the  graduates  for  the  above-mentioned  purposes. 

The  need  of  such  men  is  urgent,  but  .should  not  blind  us  to  the  more  urgent 
need  for  men  who  have  received  their  training  in  the  Chinese  language. 

There  is  another  point  that  has  not  been  sufficiently  considered.  By  the 
medical  teaching  we  have  already  done  in  Chinese,  we  have  started  a movement 
that  is  not  going  to  stop.  It  is  plainly  our  duty  to  stay  with  this  movement 
and  helj)  it  and  constantly  seek  to  raise  it  to  a higher  .standard.  If  we  desert 
it  at  this  critical  time  and  do  no  more  teaching  in  Chinese,  it  will  be  taken  up 
by  the  men  we  have  educated  in  the  past,  who  fall  far  short  of  the  standard 
for  which  we  stand,  and  which  we  hoi>e  soon  to  attain  in  our  medical  schools. 

The  English-taught  men  will  not  do  this  medical  teaching  in  Chinese,  or  if 
the.v  do  it,  it  will  be  as  divided  and  scattered  units  without  any  organization. 
Besides,  any  teaching  done  by  them  in  Chinese  will  necessarily  be  of  an  in- 
ferior quality  because  of  their  ignorance  of  Chinese  medical  terms. 

Whatever  may  be  our  failings,  and  they  are  many,  we  are  the  only  organ- 
ized body  that  Is  making  any  serious  effort  on  a large  scale  to  give  the  science 
of  medicine  to  the  Chinese  in  their  own  language.  If  we  ignominiously  desert 
such  a worthy  cause,  the  finger  of  scom  will  be  pointed  at  us  by  those  who 
know  the  facts.  If  we  should  leave  this  work  to  half-trained  men,  “Western 
medicine,''  instead  of  being  held  in  high  esteem  in  China,  would  be  in  danger  of 
becoming  a laughing-stock  and  a reproach. 

To  sum  up,  the  work  of  teaching  medicine  in  the  Chinese  language  is  a big 
work,  an  important  work,  a necessary  work,  a difficult  work.  We  cannot  en- 
tirely substitute  for  it  the  teaching  of  medicine  in  English,  though  we  can 
make  the  two  supplement  each  other.  If  we  neglect  entii’ely  the  teaching  of 
medicine  in  Chinese,  it  will  be  done  by  others  far  less  well  equipped  to  do  it 
than  we  are. 

It  seems  to  me  that  our  Association  should  stand  for  the  establishment  of 
separate  schools  for  the  teaching  of  medicine  in  Chinese  and  in  English,  so 
that  both  classes  of  students  may  be  able  to  do  their  best  work.  It  might  be 
mentioned  that,  while  we  are  not  at  all  blind  to  the  deficiency  in  scientific 
knowledge  of  many  of  the  men  we  have  educated  in  the  past,  their  failure  to 
“make  good”  has  in  a large  number  of  cases  been  due  to  a break-down  in  char- 
acter rather  than  to  a lack  of  scientific  knowledge.  It  is  too  often  the  case 
that,  “When  money  knocks  at  the  door,  pure  science  dies  out  of  the  window.” 
Failures  of  this  kind  should  not  be  atributed  to  the  use  of  the  Chinese  language. 

It  is  very  much  hoped  that  we,  as  an  Association,  can  reach  something  like 
unanimity  on  this  important  question.  Our  work  will  be  weakened  and  made 
ineffectual  by  dividing  into  hostile  camps  and  by  consuming  in  argument  the 
time  and  energy  that  should  be  put  upon  our  work.  Above  all,  the  faculty  of 
a given  medical  school  should  not  be  divided  on  this  point.  We  should  all  with 

476 


one  heart  and  mind  ^ve  ourselves  to  the  task  of  having  it  definitely  dedded 
which  of  our  schools  are  going  to  use  Chinese,  and  which  are  going  to  use  Eng- 
lish as  the  medium  of  instruction.  This  question  being  settled,  let  each  school 
go  forward  in  its  chosen  path  without  wavering  and  without  discussion. 

THE  TEACHING  MEDIUM  IN  THE  UNION  MEDICAL  COLLEGE, 

PEKING 

E.  J.  .STUCKEY,  M.D.,  PEKING 

Any  one  reading  the  Report  of  the  Rockefeller  Medical  Commission  cannot 
fail  to  be  impressed  with  the  thoroughness  of  its  investigations,  its  realization 
of  the  great  problem  pre.sented  by  the  medical  needs  of  China  and  the  corre- 
sponding magnitude  of  the  Recommendations  .setting  forth  the  plans  of  the 
Commission  for  meeting  these  needs.  The  spirit  of  the  Report  will  give  intense 
satisfaction  to  the  missionaries  and  to  all  who  have  the  welfare  of  China  at 
heart.  The  far-sighted  generosity  lying  behind  this  project  is  planning  a not- 
able gift  to  this  people. 

The  only  points  in  which  I would  at  all  dissent  from  the  findings  of  the  Com 
mission  are  those  relating  to  the  medium  of  instruction  in  medical  colleges. 
.Seeing  that  this  Report  and  the  recent  debate  of  the  .Shanghai  Conference  are 
ont'e  again  raising  the  oft-debated  question  in  the  U.  M.  C..  1 have  asked  per- 
mission to  submit  my  own  convictions  on  this  matter. 

THE  -YLTEKX.VTIVES 

The  alternatives  discussed  by  the  Commission  in  their  report  are : 

(a)  Instruction  in  English,  or 

(b)  Instruction  exclusively  in  Chinese  with  practically  no  knowledge 

of  a foreign  language. 

.Vfter  weighing  the  pro's  and  con's  of  these  alternatives,  pronounc-ement  is  made 
in  favor  of  the  former,  largely  on  the  ground  that  the  latter  plan  “debars  a 
graduate  in  medicine  from  keeping  up  with  the  advance  of  medical  science, 
because  there  is  not  open  to  him  the  great  field  of  medical  literature  in  English.’’ 

If  these  were  the  only  alteniativj^s  in  the  matter,  there  could  be  little  differ- 
ence of  opinion  b<‘tween  educators  in  China.  P.iit  to  me  at  any  rate  the  alter- 
native.s  have  been  very  different,  viz: 

(1)  lustnn-tion  in  English,  or 

(2)  Instruction  in  Chinese,  but  re<iuiring  the  student  to  have  suffi- 

cient knowledge  of  English  to  read  freely  text-books  and  peri- 
odicals in  the  English  language. 

Now  there  is  a very  great  difference  between  reading  a language  freely,  and 
being  able  to  follow  a s<-ientific  lecture  in  that  language.  ( So  also  is  there  a 
great  difference  between  ordinary  conversation  and  a reasoned  discourse.) 
Many  of  us  have  had  i)ainful  experience  of  the  sensations  of  a man  following  a 
(liscour.se  in  a for»dgn  tongue.  We  follow  tolerably  well  if  familiar  terms  are 
used,  yet  even  then  we  are  often  not  at  all  sure  that  we  have  appreciated  some 
fine  points  of  distiin-tioii.  If  the  speaker  should  take  up  a subject  with  un- 
familiar terms,  we  are  often  qttite  lost  even  though  the  terms  used  be  explain- 
ed. This  is  the  exfSTience  of  men  not  lacking  in  training  and  ability,  and  de- 
spite the  fact  that  we  have  the  tremendous  advantage  of  living  in  China  and  of 
hearing  the  language  spoken  continually. 

Chinese  students  taught  in  English  in  China  will  hear  English  sjioken  only 
in  the  class-room.  any  effort  of  which  we  have  been  conscious  in  under- 
standing and  si>eaking  Chinese  will  be  greatly  accentuated  in  their  experience. 

I have  heard  of  a Chinese  medical  student  who  was  sufficiently  well  in-struct- 
ed  in  English  to  matriculate  at  the  Edinburgh  Medical  School,  who  nevertheless 
testified  that  for  the  whole  of  his  'first  year  in  the  school  the  greater  part  of 
the  ler^tures  were  unintelligible  and  he  was  dependent  on  his  text-books. 

Teachers  in  the  Government  University  and  the  Customs  College  tell  us  that 
their  students  are  very  dei>endent  on  text-books  and  the  full  notes  of  lectures 
which  they  are  required  to  supply. 


477 


EXPERIENCE  OF  JAPAN 

Afcoi’ding  to  the  Keiiort  of  the  GommLssion,  No.  2 of  the  nbove  alternatives 
is  exactl.v  the  methoil  followed  by  Japan  at  present.  It  may  lie  urged  that  in 
the  early  stage.s  in  Cliina  we  must  follow  the  earlier  ti'end  of  .Japanese  medical 
education,  viz  : teaching  in  a foreign  language.  But  in  reply  I would  say  that 
conditions  in  China  are  entirely  different  from  those  which  obtained  in  the 
<>arly  days  of  medical  education  in  .Tapan.  At  that  time  there  were  no  mis- 
sionary institutions  prepared  to  assume  the  heavy  burden  of  a full  medical  cur- 
I'iculum  ; it  was  therefore  necessary  to  bring  in  teachers  from  abroad.  Apart 
fi'om  the  “missionary  spirit’’  (referred  to  in  the  Report)  it  would  be  difficult 
to  find  foreign  teachers  ready  to  devote  several  years  to  acquiring  the  language 
of  the  country.  Hence  as  teachers  had  to  be  imported  from  a foreign  c-ountry 
(Gei-many),  it  was  a necessary  corollary  that  the  students  must  learn  German. 
The  tentative  character  of  the  arrangement  is  evidenced  by  the  fact  that  as  soon 
as  .Tapanese  professors  were  available,  the  iiolicy  turned  towards  teaching  in 
.Tapanese. 

In  China  at  present  the  missionary  colleges  hold  the  field.  There  is  a Ixxly 
of  men  with  a knowledge  of  Chinese  taking  up  this  work  of  medical  education. 
The  work  already  accomplished  has  shown  that  first-class  work  can  be  done 
through  the  medium  of  Chinese ; the  deficiencies  have  largely  been  due  to  lack 
of  resources  in  men  and  equipment  due  to  the  limited  exchequer  of  the  rnissfion- 
ary  societies. 


THE  ULTIMATE  METHOD 

If  any  of  the  educational  authorities,  foreign  or  Chinese,  who  favor  instruc- 
tion in  English,  are  asked  whether  medicine  must  always  be  taught  in  a for- 
eign language,  they  unanimously  reply  with  a decided  negative.  The  ultimate 
method  must  he  the  use  of  the  Chinese  lan-guafie  as  a medivm.  In  view  of  the 
marked  impression  which  the  U.  M.  C.  has  already  made  on  the  Chinese  au- 
thorities by  its  teaching  in  Chinese,  it  seems  to  me  a fatal  mistake  to  retreat 
from  that  method  of  teaching  which  every  one  admits  must  be  the  ultimate 
one. 


THE  EFFECT  ON  THE  STUDENT.S 

There  .seems  to  be  a growing  feeling  among  educators  in  China  who  have  had 
exiiej'ience  of  students  trained  in  English  as  a medium,  that  such  students  are 
to  a large  extent  denationalized.  This  is  the  burden  of  a paper  in  “The  Chinese 
Rof'order’’  (Febniarj’,  IOI.t).  by  A.  W.  March.  Ph.B..  ]M.A..  of  Hangchow, 
from  which  the  following  are  extracts ; “X  Chine.se  taught  in  English  is  an  in- 
tellectual Eura.sian.  neither  a foreigner  nor  a Chinese.  . . . Imitation  is  his 
only  solution  to  the  problem  of  the  acquisition  of  English,  and  imitate  he  does 
from 'morning  till  night,  mon  th  after  mouth,  and  year  after  year.  Is  it  a won- 
der that  the  man  loses  initiative'/  loses  the  power  to  think  for  him.self?  Should 
we  look  to  these  imitators,  to  these  followers  of  the  foreigner  for  leadership? 

. . In  defense  of  English  as  the  medium  many  .say  that  Chinese  terminology 
is  not  fixed  ; it  is  not  current.  Terminology  cannot  be  current  until  it  is  used. 
...  In  teaching  in  English  we  have  to  speak  abnormally  slowly,  and  must 
often  repeat  to  be  sure  that  the  students  catch  the  thought.  . . . By  teaching 
in  Chinese  we  create  a i-espect  for  the  national  language,  while  we  do  the  oppo- 
site when  we  use  English.’’ 

Knowing  the  facility  of  the  Chinese  mind  in  imitation  au<l  memorizing,  and 
the  corresponding  lack  of  initiative  and  reasoning,  such  an  outlook  as  the  above 
scarcely  promises  effective  work  in  medicane. 

effect  on  the  TEACHERS 

The  Report  of  the  Commission  says : “Use  of  English  greatly  widens  the 
choice  of  medical  teachers  by  jireventing  the  very  onerous  burden  of  learning 
Chinese  being  placed  on  every  teacher  in  a medical  school ; it  would  probably  be 
impossible  to  find  any  considerable  number  of  well-qualified  professors  who 
wouhl  be  willing  to  devote  two  or  three  years  to  a study  of  the  Chinese  lan- 
guage and  thereafter  to  si>end  a large  part  of  the  time  for  preparing  lectures 
in  the  laborious  task  of  putting  them  into  good  Chinese.” 

478 


Here  is  the  crux  of  the  whole  problem  : “Who  is  to  bridge  the  gap  between 
the  two  nationalities?  Shall  “the  burden’’  be  laid  on  the  few  (teachers)  for 
the  benefit  of  the  many  (students),  or  shall  we  relieve  the  teachers  and  put  the 
"burden’’  on  the  students? 

There  aiT  other  considerations  involved  so  far  as  the  foreign  teachers  are 
fonc-eiTied.  Experience  shows  that  if  a man  be  plunged  at  once  into  the  busy 
roiuid  of  hospital  work,  teaching  and  research,  he  never  acquires  the  Chinese 
language  in  any  adequate  degree.  All  his  life  in  China  he  will  be  conscious 
that  he  is  a stranger  in  a strange  land — he  is  an  exile,  always  longing  to  get 
liome.  Such  men  ai’e  never  really  comfortable  and  seldom  stay  long  in  face  of 
difficulties  and  inevitable  disapiwintments. 

Moreover,  he  is  cut  off  from  direct  dealing  with  patients  in  the  out-patient 
clinic  or  in  the  wards.  Any  history  he  may  get  from  them  will  be  largely  guess- 
work, or  must  be  obtained  through  an  interpreter. 

I need  not  speak  of  any  direct  missionary  work  that  such  a man  may  hope 
to  do ; he  is  shut  out  from  it  by  the  barrier  of  language. 

I have  tried  to  show  that  though  teaching  in  English  is  “easier”  for  the 
teacher,  it  is  rarely  effective  and  therefore  to  any  keen  man  is  unsatisfactory. 
If  he  finds  that  his  teaching  fails  to  penetrate  and  grip  the  students,  will  it  be 
any  satisfaction  to  him  to  reflect  that  he  was  saved  a great  deal  of  trouble  in 
preparation? 

Furthermore,  our  experience  is  that  the  effort  required  in  keeping  up  lec- 
tures in  Chinese  is  not  very  great,  once  the  terms  of  the  subject  and  a sufficiency 
of  connecting  phrases  have  been  won.  True,  the  first  hard  struggles  with  the 
language  require  a generous  supply  of  the  “missionary  spirit.’’  But  person- 
ally I have  little  hojre  apart  from  that  of  any  man  staying  here  for  any  length 
of  time.  The  Kei)ort  shows  that  the  Commis.sion  shares  this  feeling. 

Short-term  men  and  si>ecial  lecturers  would  find  abundant  scope  for  their 
energies  in  research  work,  in  post-graduate  lectures  and  in  “brushing-up  lec- 
tures’’ for  the  doctoi-s  attached  to  the  various  hospitals  associated  with  the 
teaching-school. 

So  for  the  sake  of  the  teachers  as  well  as  for  the  sake  of  the  students,  I be- 
lieve we  should  continue  to  do  the  bulk  of  our  teaching  in  Chinese.  A change  to 
English  on  the  plea  that  it  is  only  a temporary  measure  cannot  be  allowed  be- 
cause every  year  of  teaching  in  English  would  remove  us  farther  from  the  pos- 
sibility of  teaching  in  Chinese.  The  tea<-hers  with  a knowledge  of  Chinese  and 
Chinese  terms  would  become  increasingly  fewer,  and  when  the  time  might  be 
riiK‘  for  the  change  back  to  Chinese,  the  plan  would  be  hopelessly  barred  by  the 
lack  of  such  men. 

“I.OW  ST.VND.\RI).S” 

I’ersonally  I would  dejjrecate  most  strongly  the  api>parent  assumption  that 
“instruction  in  Chinese’’  necessarily  produces  ’’low  standards”  and  “ill-trained 
men,”  and  the  claim  that  only  teaching  in  a foreign  language  will  secure  “thoi- 
oughly-trained  medical  men.  who  will  be  able  to  man  the  medical  faculties,  hos- 
pitals and  institutes  of  investigation.” 

Experienc'e  justifies  neither  of  these  statements. 

THE  AIM  OF  .MEDICAL  EDft  ATIO.N 

I would  question  whether  the  latter  expresses  the  function  of  the  regular 
imsiical  curriculum  of  .my  college.  What  college  in  the  home-lands  sets  out  to 
train  men  “to  man  the  medical  faculties,  hospitals  and  institutes  of  investiga- 
tion"? A college  aims  to  give  a full  cour.se  of  medicine  to  all  its  students,  sucli 
as  shall  fit  them  to  recognize,  understand  and  treat  disease.  Those  who  show 
si>ecial  aptitude  and  brilliam-e  jiroi-eed  to  s]tecial  imst-graduate  studies  and  in- 
vestigations which  fit  them  for  positions  in  teai'hing  institutions.  This  part  of 
medical  education  surely  belongs  to  tlie  jiost-graduate  department,  which  we  are 
all  agreed  should  be  a feature  of  the  I’eking  .school. 

EFFF.Cl  OF  A RtrTRKAT  IN  PEKI.VC 

I believe  that  there  is  room  for  a strong  medical  school  teaching  in  English 
in  or  near  Shanghai  and  jierhaps  in  the  South.  The  great  variety  of  dialects 
in  the.se  districts  makes  it  imiiossible  to  select  any  dialect  which  would  be  in- 

479 


} 


telligible  to  most  of  the  students.  Hence  the  vogue  of  schools  teaching  in  Eng- 
lish south  of  the  Yangste;  these  form  the  natural  feeders  of  a medical  schwd 
teaching  in  English. 

But  Peking  is  in  a very  different  iwsition.  It  is  the  centre  of  the  Mandarin- 
speaking  provinces  which  cover  the  whole  of  the  north  and  west  of  China.  It 
is  the  great  student  centre  of  the  empire.  A retrograde  move  in  Peking  would 
be,  I believe,  a great  mistake  and  would  do  a lasting  injury  to  the  national  edu- 
cation of  China. 

We  must  have  a strong  medical  school,  in  Peking  teaching  in  Chinese.  There 
is  much  more  involved  than  the  success  or  otherwise  of  the  U.  M.  C.  If  we  go 
back  to  teaching  in  English  on  the  ground  that  first-class  work  canot  be  done 
in  Chinese,  we  attach  an  indelible  stigma  on  all  teaching  of  scientific  subjects 
in  Chinese,  which  will  last  for  a generation  at  least.  If  w’e  cannot  do  effective 
work  in  Chinese,  no  other  institwtion  in  China  can.  To  retreat  now  would  be 
worse  than  starting  de  novo  to  teach  in  English.  We  have  attained  a very  de- 
finite standing  in  the  capital  and  such  an  action  would  aim  a fatal  blow  at  all 
future  attempts  to  teach  in  Chinese.  In  the  minds  of  the  educational  author- 
ities in  Peking  teaching  in  Chinese  and  mediocrity  will  be  indis.solubly  asso- 
ciated, at  least  so  far  as  medical  education  is  concerned ; “even  the  U.  M.  C.  had 
to  give  it  up.”  I believe  we  have  no  cause  to  be  ashamed  of  the  work  done  by 
the  U.  M.  C.  in  the  past.  We  had  to  start  with  rather  a poor  grade  of  student, 
but  the  standard  is  rising  steadily  and  we  have  raised  our  entrance  require- 
ments considerably  this  year.  We  have  labored  under  the  handicaps  of  an  in- 
sufficient staff,  defective  equipment  and  limited  funds.  Yet  we  have  won  the 
confidence  of  the  government  and  of  the  people  and  a reputation  for  sound  work. 

The  Foundation  is  able  to  .supply  equipment  and  funds  and  provide  salaries 
for  the  necessary  staff.  Relieved  of  the  stress  under  which  we  have  worked, 
there  is  no  reason  why  the  new  teachers  should  not  make  much  greater  pro- 
gress in  the  language  than  the  present  teachers  have  ever  achieved.  Once  the 
initial  difficulty  is  surmounted,  they  will  have  increasing  satisfaction  as  they 
come  more  and  moi-e  into  harmony  with  their  Chinese  environment. 

Another  important  consideration  is  that  almost  all  the  institutions  in  the 
north  which  are  feeders  to  the  U.  M.  C.  teach  in  Chinese.  A change  to  Eng- 
lish would  take  the  U.  M,  C.  out  of  its  present  i-elation  to  these.  It  is  decided- 
ly open  to  question  whether  from  other  quarters  we  shall  get  any  number  of 
students  able  to  take  lectures  on  medicine  in  English. 

To  retreat  now  is  to  give  up  when  the  initial  difficulties  have  been  overcome 
and  the  possibility  of  succes.sful  advance  is  within  our  reach. 

CONCLUSIONS 

We  should  require  a high  standard  of  English  from  students  at  entrance,  so 
that  they  may  be  able  to  read  freely  an  ordinary  English  book  or  paper. 

All  systematic  lectures  should  be  given  in  Chinese.  But  at  the  same  time  we 
should  require  that  both  Chinese  and  English  terminology  should  be  acquired, 
so  that  the  students  may  be  bi-lingual  in  respect  of  terminology. 

Post-graduate  classes  should  be  given  in  English  so  as  to  utilize  the  services 
of  short-tenn  men  and  special  lecturers.  In  an  emergency  the  ordinary  clinics 
for  undergraduates  might  be  carried  on  in  English  by  teachers  still  without 
sufficient  Chinese  to  lecture  in  that  language. 

Our  college  will  then  be  turning  out  graduates  able  to  read  medical  literature 
iu  English  and  thoroughly  conversant  with  English  medical  terminology  (just 
as  many  British  and  American  doctors  are  in  touch  with  French  and  German 
literature).  But  the  ground-work  of  their  knowledge  will  be  in  their  mother- 
tongue  ; they  will  “think  medicine”  in  Chinese.  They  will  not  be  denational- 
ized ; they  will  be  thoroughly  at  home  among  their  own  people..  They  will  be 
able  at  once  to  help  prepare  the  medical  literature  China  so  sorely  needs  in  a 
way  that  no  foreign-trained  medical  graduate  seems  able  to  do. 

“Western”  medicine  will  then  have  become  really  indigenous  In  China  and 
be  ready  and  efficient  for  the  healing  and  progress  of  this  vast  people. 

Respectfully  submitted  with  the  consent  of  the  Principal. 


480 


VI.  SUMMARY  AND  CONCLUSIONS 


1.  Treasury  Observations  482-487 

2.  General  Reflections  488-512 


16 — Report  of  Deiputa-tlon. 


VI.  SUMMARY  AND  CONCLUSIONS 


1.  TI!];a8I;I!V  ()BSUI1\  ATIOXS 

DWKiHT  H.  DAY 

Tlie  jKirty  arrived  in  Victoria  early  on  the  luorairi}?  of  Xo- 
veinber  21st,  liavinj?  sjient  17  days  in  the  crossing  fi-orri  Yoko- 
haina.  New  York  is  reached  by  the  2<;th  by  the  shortest  route, 
delays  and  connections  adding  six  days  to  the  sea  voyage.  If 
we  (’onnt  ten  dajs  for  crossing  the  Atlantic  and  making  the 
connection  in  London,  the  total  time  elapsed  can  be  summarized 


as  follows : 

New  York  to  London  10  days 

London  to  Penang  27  “ 

Travel  in  the  Siam  Ui.strict  21 

Spent  in  Siam  Mission  Stations  28%  “ 

Travel  from  Bangkok  to  Iloilo  9 

Travel  in  the  Philippines  6 

Spent  in  the  Philippine  Stations  .Tl  “ 

Travel  from  Manila  to  Nagasaki  .5%  “ 

Travel  in  the  Korea  District  4%  '* 

Spent  in  the  Korea  Mission  Stations  .■>  “ 

Travel  and  stops  in  the  China  District 9%  “ 

Spent  in  China  Mission  Stations  17%  “ 

Travel  from  Shanghai  to  Kobe  .3%  “ 

Travel  in  .lapan  3 days  at  Nikko  2 days  making .1  ‘‘ 

Spent  in  Mission  Stations  11%  “ 

Travel  from  Yokohama  to  Victoria  17  “ 

Victoria  to  New  Y’ork  (and  connections) 6 “ 


Total  number  of  days  220%  days 

Spent  in  travel  and  stops  124  days 

Spent  in  Mission  Stations  0G%  “ 


Thus  it  has  been  possible  for  me  to  encircle  the  globe  and  vi.sit 
five  countries  as  described  in  the  reports,  traveling  some  80,000 
miles  in  about  seven  months,  whereas  twenty  years  ago  it  is  esti- 
mated it  would  have  taken  a year  and  a half  or  two  yeait<  to  ac- 
complish the  same  journey.  Boat  and  rail  accommoflations  were 
remarkably  good  everywhere  and  aside  fi-om  two  violent  stonns 
at  .sea  and  a minor  I'^ilway  accident  in  China,  thei*e  was  no  in- 
convenience in  travel. 

Some  impressions  and  convictions  growing  out  of  the  trip  ap- 
ply generally  to  all  the  work  or  to  all  the  missions,  and  may  be 
discussed  under  general  heads. 

EVANGELISTIC  WORK  AND  ESTABLISHING  OF  CHURCHES 

Never  has  it  been  more  clear  that  the  gathering  of  congrega- 
tions and  the  fonnation  of  churches,  having  their  own  native 
jiastors,  must  be  the  supivuie  object  and  aim  of  the  missionary 
enterprise.  Many  methods  and  means  are  employed,  each  doing 

482 


good  itself,  but  all  must  contribute  souietliiug  to  tbe  forces 
that  will  establisib  cliurclies,  otherwise  the  results  are  likely  to 
be  dissipated.  Organized  churches  include  men,  women,,  and 
children.  They  gather  families,  the  units  of  society  within  their 
doors;  they  induce  co-operation  among  them  which  results  in 
larger  power  and  enthusiasm,  and  out  from  these  churches  can 
the  life  alone  flow  which  shall  evangelize  the  nations.  Foreign 
missionaries  can  not  do  it,  only  a vast  number  of  Christian  com- 
municants living  the  Christian  life  and  te.stifyiug  to  the  Power 
can  do  it.  IVIedical  work  is  the  Avork  of  Christ  in  healing  bodies, 
but  it  Avill  miss  the  sj)irit  of  Christ’s  healing  if  it  neglects  the 
soul’s  health  and  fails  to  turn  the  patient  toward  the  Church 
of  Christ.  School  and  college  Avork  ])urely  as  education  is  not 
e.ssential,  but  it  is  all  imi)ortaiit  as  it  is  the  means  to  Avhat  is 
e.s.sential,  the  conA^ei'si<ui  to  Christ  of  the  young  people,  and  the 
raising  uj>  and  training  of  preachers  and  leaders  for  the  churches. 
Let  the  eye  never  be  taken  off  this  one  object  and  end,  to  estab- 
li.sh  groups  of  believers  as  independent  churches,  composed  of 
those  Avho  kiioAv  they  ha\"e  found  the  truth  of  God,  who  liaAm  the 
root  of  the  matter  in  them,  and  avIio  are  so  convinced  of  the  value 
of  Avhat  they  have  found  that  they  Avill  make  sacrifice  to  keep  it 
and  peri)etuate  it. 

AVHAT  AS  TO  POLICY? 

The  Hoard  and  the  missions  have  practically  agreed  that  for 
the  i>re.seut  the  foreign  mi.ssion  enteri)iise  in  general  shall  fol- 
low a policy  of  intensive  develo^pment  rather  than  one  of  exten- 
sion. Observations  made  on  the  field  confirm  this  as  the  correct 
principle  for  the  present  .situation  and  conditions.  Of  course, 
there  must  always  be  extension  in  a sense,  the  Avork  must  sj)read 
out  or  it  Avill  die,  but  the  sj)reading  should  be  along  the  lines 
alrwidy  laid  out  ratlun-  than  by  e.stablishing  new  stations  re- 
quiring a full  complement  of  Avorkers  and  neAV  equipment.  In 
some  stations,  peGia])s  in  many,  there  is  already  more  e(piij)- 
ment  than  is  being  usihI,  and  vastly  more  o])portunity.  The  need 
for  men  and  women  is  great  ami  some  of  the  present  sclnmls  aie 
in  distress  for  more  and  better  accommodations. 

MISSION  TKEASniKKS  AND  THE  CENTRALIZATION  OE  ACCOUNTS 

The  strong  representations  by  the  mi.ssions  and  the  conditions 
existing  in  some  of  tlie  stations  ainjily  justify  the  anxiety  of 
the  Hoard  during  recent  years  to  establish  scientific  accounting 
on  the  field.  It  has  bwn  a]>parent  for  .some  years  that  as  the 
work  on  the  field  has  outgrown  its  old  forms  and  limits  and  lias 
become  diversified  and  intricati*,  the  ohl  methods  of  handling 
and  accounting  for  funds  must  be  more  adeipiately  provided  for 
ami  brought  uj»  to  the  standards  of  accejited  jiractice.  In  order 
to  accomjdisli  this,  the  Hoard  has  folloAved  two  jilans: 

1.  The  iilaii  of  establishing  men  trained  in  financial  ami 
accounting  work  as  treuisurers  of  missions  or  a combination  of 
missions  or  large  institutions  whose  chief  work  shall  be  that 
of  handling  the  accounts. 


483 


2.  The  centraliKalioii  of  all  Ihe  accounling  of  a mission  or 
district  in  the  hands  of  a mission  treasurer  or  fiscal  agent.  There 
are  now  eight  such  treasurers  ju-ovided  for,  covering  nine  mis- 
sions and  two  universities  as  follows: 

Syria — Manager  of  Press  and  Treasurer. 

West  Africa. 

Japan. 

Philippines. 

Korea. 

Under  the  China  Fiscal  Agent  al  Shanghai. 

Central  China. 

Kiang-an. 

Shantung. 

North  China  (to  be  included  on  Ai)ril  1,  IDKil. 

Shantung  University  Treasurer  and  Registrar. 

Nanking  University.  (Place  now  vacant  but  treasurer  provide^l 
for.) 

Testimony  gathered  from  all  these  missions  (exc-epting  Syria 
and  Africa  not  visited)  was  unanimous  that  these  special  men 
were  not  only  valuable  in  saving  the  time  and  energy  of  many 
untrained  missionaries,  but  indispensable  to  the  proper  conduct 
of  our  large  financial  undertakings.  The  missions  have  shown 
from  experience  that  more  is  gained  for  the  work  by  appointing 
a technically  trained  man  for  this  technical  work  than  by  send- 
ing out  a new  ordained  missionary"  to  a mission  that  is  needing 
a treasurer.  North  China  Mission  and  the  Philippine  Mission 
i-egarded  their  emergency  as  so  great  that  they  placed  a mis.sion 
treasurer  first  on  their  list  of  needs.  North  China  has  been 
arranged  for.  Men  are  needed  for  the  Philippines  and  Nanking 
TTiiiversity,  and  South  China  must  be  j)rovided  for  in  some  way. 
The  missions  will  then  be  quite  well  supplied  in  this  important 
department. 


TREASURY  MATTERS.  PROI'ERTY  DATA 

The  attention  of  the  missions  was  called  to  the  necessity  of 
promptly  and  completely  .supplying  the  information  asked  for 
on  the  property-  blanks  .sent  out  periodically  from  the  New  York 
office.  The  mission  treasurer  is  the  officer  usually  charged  with 
this  responsibility  and  he  or  the  individual  appointed  to  gather 
the  data,  should  be  asked  to  report  to  the  proper  mission  com- 
mittee on  the  matter. 

valuable  documents 

Valuable  papers  and  documents  such  as  deeds,  leases,  etc., 
should  be  lodged  with  the  mission  trea.surer  or  Fiscal  Agent 
who  is  presumed  to  have  suitable  facilities  for  safeguarding 
them.  Tf  any  document  is  needed  at  another  station,  it  may  of 
course  be  sent,  the  files  of  the  trejisurer  indicating  its  absence 
and  the  person  charged  with  the  responsibility  for  returning  it. 

484 


INSURANCE  FOR  BUILDINGS 

It  is  our  conviction  that  the  policy  of  the  Board  with  regard 
to  the  insuring  of  mission  buildings  is  the  correct  one.  It  is 
not  necessary,  nor  is  it  feasible  to  insure  each  and  every  build- 
ing in  a public  insurance  company.  The  annual  premium  re- 
quired by  so  doing  would  be  enormous  and  quite  out  of  propor- 
tion to  the  losses  judging  from  the  past.  However,  the  insur- 
ance fund  of  the  Board  should  be  built  up  until  it  can  more  ade- 
quately take  care  of  the  losses  charged  against  it.  Appeal  must 
be  made  for  special  gifts  to  replace  buildings  lost  by  fire  or  tor- 
nado. Where  buildings  are  extensive  and  closely  joined,  they 
should  be  insured  in  public  insurance  companies,  the  premiums 
being  included  in  the  estimates  and  paid  out  of  the  appropria- 
tions to  the  missions.  In  the  case  of  the  missiou  press  at  Bang- 
kok which  marvellously  escaped  the  conflagration  of  1914,  it  is 
doubtful  whether  insurance  can  be  obtained  in  a public  company, 
but  the  installation  of  fire-fighting  apparatus  and  a better  water 
supply  will  go  a measurable  distance  toward  protection.  These 
are  now  being  installed.  In  such  cases  the  expense  should  be 
borne  by  the  institution  which  is  self-sup]iorting  and  which  un- 
der careful  and  business-like  management  has  been  able  to  show 
an  annual  profit. 

If  simple  fire-fighting  apparatus  could  be  installed  in  all  large 
schools,  dormitories  and  ho.spitals  and  even  in  residences,  it 
would  afford  an  additional  .safeguard  and  it  is  believed  the  in- 
itial expense  would  be  more  than  justified. 

PROPERTY  HELD  BY  INDIVIDUALS 

In  some  instances  due  to  legal  limitations  properties  of  the 
Board  are  held  in  the  name  of  individual  missionaries.  It  maj' 
not  be  possible  to  legally  arrange  otherwi.se  or  there  may  be  a 
pericKl  during  which  it  is  advisable  that  no  other  arrangement  be 
made.  In  all  such  cases  trust  deeds  should  be  e.xecuted  to  the 
Board  or  to  the  Board’s  attorney  (generally  the  mi.ssion  treas- 
urer) de.scribing  the  trust.  Individuals  can  also  indicate  in 
their  wills,  that  the  property  as  described  belongs  to  the  Board. 

BUILDERS  AND  ARCHITECTS 

There  is  a very  insistent  demand  from  the  field  based  u])on  ne- 
cessity and  experience  for  men  .skilled  in  building  work  to  su- 
perintend Ihe  erection  of  buildings;  likewi.se  for  achitects  to 
draw  plans  and  lay  out  gi-onnds.  when  the.se  operations  are  ex- 
tensive. It  is  IiojxhI  that  this  ne(*d  in  the  IMiilippines  and  in 
South  (’liina  may  be  met  by  the  ai»iK)intment  of  a new  treasurer 
at  Manila.  Nanking  has  a builder  on  (he  grounds  superintend- 
ing the  erection  of  the  rniver.sity’s  new  plant  from  plans  drawn 
in  Chicago.  Shantung  Cniversity  has  new  j)lans  drawn  also  by 
architects  in  the  CnitiHl  States.  North  Siam  has  a skillful  build- 
er, but  he  is  engagcsl  in  teaching  al.so,  and  he  is  finding  it  diffi- 
cult to  carry  on  both  line.s.  An  architect  and  builder  for  a large 
district,  covering  two  or  more  missions  is  an  admirable  arrange- 

485 


nienl,  and  in  llie  money  saved,  tlie  lime  and  energj^  of  the  mis- 
sionary  consei-ved  foi-  liis  ref>iilar  woik,  and  in  the  j»raetieal>ility 
and  beauty  of  11u‘  bnildin<>s,  his  cosl  is  well  jnstifi(f<].  In  some 
cas(*.s  unskilled  missionaiy  Imildei's  have  done  remai'kablv  well 
with  l)uildin<>s  they  have  ei-ect(Ml  and  in  all  cases  the  results  have 
l)(*en  better  lhan  mij'ht  reasonably  have  Ix^en  ex]>ecte<],  but  the 
future  should  show  a f^reat  advance  in  jdans,  in  architectiiiv  and 
in  the  arranf>'ement  of  coinjH)nnds  over  the  past. 

TU’KKEI*  OF  I'KOPERTY 

The  missions  have  in  general  taken  up  conscientiously  the 
matter  of  the  rejtair  and  j)aintiiifj  of  liiiildings,  but  a natural  re- 
luctance to  subtract  funds  from  the  “living  work”  for  these 
itmns  excej)t  such  as  are  absolutely  necessary,  has  cau.sed  build- 
ings to  deteriorate  to  the  point  where  it  is  expensive  to  put  them 
in  order.  It  is  more  economical  in  the  long  run  to  keep  making 
small  repairs  and  to  j)aint  at  regular  intervals,  and  the  appear- 
ance of  the  buildings  is  maintained  at  a level  more  in  keeping 
with  the  high  standards  of  the  missionary  enter])rise. 

DECISIONS  ON  THE  FIELD 

The  work  of  the  China  Council  makes  jilain  the  gi-eat  value 
of  having  a body  on  the  field  capable  of  making  decisions,  with- 
out referring  every  small  item  to  the  Board  in  New  York.  Often 
a (pie.stion  can  be  decided  on  merely  stating  it,  and  yet  from 
four  to  six  months  may  elapse  before  it  can  be  submitted  to 
New  York  and  a rejily  be  received.  In  the  interest  of  prompt 
action  and  better  administration,  both  the  China  Council  and 
the  Executive  Committees  of  the  missions  should  exercise  the 
])ower  given  them  over  matters  that  fall  within  their  responsi- 
bility. Such  committees  have  already  proved  their  ability  to 
care  for  the  general  interests  of  the  work  in  spite  of  strong  local 
prassure  and  with  more  responsibility  their  caution  would  be 
rather  increased  than  duninished.  It  is  believed  that  better  ad- 
mini.stration  may  be  sought  in  this  direction. 

SUB.TECTS  DISCUSSED 

Many  subjects  and  phases  of  mission  work  were  di.scussed 
with  the  missions  and  missionaries  during  the  visits  to  the  re- 
spective fields.  Some  of  these  have  been  mentioned  in  the  pre- 
ceding reports,  others  it  has  not  been  necessary  or  feasible  to 
report  upon.  A list  of  these  subjects  would  include  the  fol- 
lowing: 

System  of  accounting  used  in  the  mission. 

How  to  centralize  and  unify  treasury  work. 

[Tniform  system  of  accounting  for  all  the  missions. 

How  to  get  prompt  reports  from  the  stations. 

How  to  get  annual  reports  to  the  Board  more  promptly. 

Bates  of  exchange 

(a)  For  salaries. 

(b)  On  New  York  charges. 

(c)  For  building  appropriations. 

48G 


Methods  of  transmitting  funds  to  the  field. 

Methods  of  transmitting  funds  from  mission  to  station  treas- 
urer or  to  individuals. 

Banks  of  deposit. 

Overdrafts. 

Missionaries’  personal  accounts. 

Blanks  sent  out  for  reports. 

Property. 

Deeds. 

Title  held  by  individuals. 

Lea.ses. 

Safe-guarding  valuable  papers. 

Titles  to  church  property  owned  by  local  congregations. 

Taxes. 

Insurance  on  buildings. 

Other  protection. 

Estimates  for  new  buildings. 

Materials  and  costs. 

Architecture. 

Architects  and  builders. 

Plans  and  .specifications. 

Ttpkeep  of  property^ 

Sewage. 

T'se  of  motor-boats. 

U.se  of  automobiles. 

These  and  similar  subjects  were  gone  over  and  many  phases  of 
mission  activity  discussecl  both  in  general,  and  as  affected  by 
local  conditions. 

The  Church  is  to  l>e  congratulated  upon  the  efficient  and  eco- 
nomical handling  of  the  vast  detail  of  its  finances  on  the  foreign 
field,  by  men  and  women  who  address  themselves  to  the  task 
with  an  earnestness  and  self-denial  hardly  surpassed. 

It  is  not  possible  to  record  even  a .small  part  of  the  good  work 
being  done  all  over  the  mi.ssion  field  that  has  been  seen  and  noted 
during  this  mission  tour,  nor  to  expre.ss  what  one  feels  .so 
deeply,  his  gratitude  and  thanks  for  the  welcome  extended  every- 
where, and  for  all  the  unselfish  acts  of  hospitality  shown  toward 
us.  We  return  home  filled  with  a new  love  and  admiration  for 
those  who  are  representing  us  abroad  and  with  the  prayer  that 
in  a closer  brotherh(M)d  we  may  ourselves  be  more  .serviceable. 


/ 


487 


2.  GENERAL  REFLECTIONS 


This  report  has  already  overtaxed  the  patience  of  the  Board, 
but  if  its  members  knew  how  much  more  there  is  to  be  said 
with  regard  to  the  work  of  these  missions  and  the  c-onditions 
under  which  it  is  done,  they  would  admire  our  brevity  and 
taciturnity.  Long  as  the  report  is,  however,  we  venture  to  add 
a feTv  concluding  reflections. 

I.  The  improvements  in  communications  make  these  visita- 
tions of  the  mi.ssion  field  very  different  today  from  what  they 
were  formerly.  We  were  able  to  do  in  seven  months  what  it 
would  have  required  not  less  than  two  years  to  do  twenty  years 
ago.  In  the  earlier  days  there  was  ample  time  for  rast  between 
the  different  stations  and  in  the  stations  there  was  more  of  the 
old-time  atmo.sphere  and  le.ss  of  the  modern  rush  and  pressure. 
The  rapid  movement  from  place  to  place,  the  innumerable  meet- 
ings, the  correspondence  which  follows  one  now  as  it  did  not 
before,  make  it  quastionable  how  long  conscientious  mission- 
aiy  visitors  can  endure  the  pace  which  is  involved  in  a pre.sent- 
day  visitation.  It  would  seem  that  in  spite  of  the  cost  in  time 
and  money  of  the  long  journey  out  to  the  field,  such  shorter  and 
more  frequent  visits  as  the  Board’s  prasent  policy  contemplates 
are  much  wiser  than  longer  tours,  unless  the  latter  can  be  so 
arranged  as  to  allow  for  adequate  periods  of  rest  between  dif- 
ferent fields. 

II.  It  is  no  longer  possible  to  speak  of  the  changing  west  and 

the  immovable  east.  Once  perhaps  the  east  lifted  its  head  to 
see  the  legions  thunder  by  and  then  dropped  to  sleep  again,  but 
from  that  sleep  there  was  a waking  long  ago.  And  nothing  more 
clearly  illustrates  the  unity  of  the  world  than  the  oneness  of 
the  forces  which  are  moong  today  in  the  life  alike  of  the  East 
and  of  the  West.  We  have  been  traveling  through  these  lands  at 
the  time  of  the  European  war,  which  is  ten  thousand  miles 
away,  but  we  have  seen  the  effects  of  the  war  in  every  cmmtry 
whei*e  we  have  been  and  have  realized  clearly  the  truth  of  what 
Mr.  Paish  of  the  ‘‘The  London  Statist”  wrote  some  years  ago 
of  the  economic  community  which  the  whole  world  has  now 
become:  “In  fact,”  said  he,  “there  is  no  nation  or  j>eople  or 

individual  w^^hich  is  not  affected  beneficially  or  prejudicially  by 
the  welfare  or  misfortune  of  all  the  world.  A disaster  from 
earthquake,  from  disease,  from  drought,  from  war,  which  falls 
upon  any  nation  in  these  days  affects  the  welfare  of  the  whole 
world  in  greater  or  less  degree,  and  on  the  other  hand  the  pro- 
gress of  thought,  the  spread  of  education,  the  advance  of  inven- 
tion, the  growth  of  production,  and,  indeed,  all  things  which 
raise  the  moral  and  material  welfare  of  any  nation,  bring  in 
their  train  advantages  to  the  whole  race.  Experience  of  the 

488 


beuefits  of  the  increasing  dependence,  of  nation  upon  nation, 
which  has  been  gained  in  the  last  century  from  the  removal  of 
the  physical  barriers  which  used  to  divide  them,  and  from  the 
supply  of  capital  by  one  country  to  another,  affords  some  idea 
of  the  great  well-being  to  which  the  whole  world  will  attain  in 
the  years  that  are  yet  to  come  from  the  ever  growing  movement 
towards  the  economic  unity  of  the  race.” 

Back  of  this  economic  unity  lies  the  great  fact  of  the  moral 
unity  of  mankind.  Once  denied  in  theory  and  still  often  repudi- 
ated in  practice,  this  truth  is  nevertheless  making  itself  realized 
in  everv'  nation.  In  collision  'ndth  it  conceptions  of  ethnic  relig- 
ion, of  zonal  ethics,  utterly  break  down.  If  humanity  is  one,  it 
must  go  on  to  find  the  one  truth  which  can  satisfy  its  deepest 
needs  and  guide  to  its  largest  destiny.  The  whole  movement  of 
the  world’s  life  today  toward  a deeper  consciousness  of  its  one- 
ness is  both  a preparation  and  a search  for  Christianity. 

The  idea  that  America  is  the  great  melting  pot  of  the  nations 
needs  supplementing  in  the  light  of  the  facts  of  other  lands. 
New  York  is  indeed  a great  maelstrom  of  the  races  but  they  are 
almost  exclusively  the  We.stem  races.  Honolulu  presents  an 
even  more  wonderful  laboratory’  of  racial  intermixture  with  its 
population  of  26,041  Hawaiians,  3,734  Asiatic  Hawaiians,  8,772 
Caucasian  Hawaiians,  21,674  Cliinese,  70,674  Japanese,  22,303 
Portuguese,  1,000  Spanish,  4,800  Porto  Picans.  605  Blacks  and 
Mulattos,  14,867  other  Caucasians,  and  7,260  miscellaneous. 
The  Malay  peninsula  is  another  cross  roiads  of  the  races.  Here 
11,065  Europeans,  10,807  Eurasians,  1,412,106  Malays,  015,883 
Chinese,  267,170  Indians,  and  32,840  from  other  races  are  poured 
in  to  one  of  the  greatest  whirlpools  of  racial  cross-breeding  that 
can  be  found  on  the  earth.  A common  language,  unified  com- 
munications and  the  strengthened  national  life  are  drawing 
together-  a dozen  different  racial  strains  in  the  Philippines.  The 
Japanese  and  Koreans  are  engaged  in  an  enormous  racial  inter- 
blending adoj)ted  as  a deliberate  governmental  policy.  In  Bang- 
kok one-fourth  of  the  population  is  Chinese  and  that  population 
does  not  mark  the  limit  of  Chinese  blood  in  the  city.  In  addition 
there  is  a lai-g(‘  population  of  Indians  and  ^lalay.s,  and  there  are 
Bumie.se  and  8hans,  Eurasian.s,  Camboflians.  Laotins,  Anna- 
mites,  Javanese,  Japane.se,  and  a dozen  Western  nationalities. 
The  isolation  of  the  racw  has  passed  away.  Not  only  are  ideas 
running  across  the  world  contemptuous  of  all  national  boun- 
daries, but  the  racial  bloods  seem  to  be  flowing  to  a common 
level. 

The  deeply  impressive  fact  as  one  views  all  this  movement  in 
Asia  today  is  that  the  movement  is  not  the  enterprise  of  indi- 
viduaks.  Individuals  are  borne  on  the  movement.  What  one 
feels  is  the  heave  of  a mighty  tide  of  life  moving  through  the 
world,  greater  than  men,  greater  than  nations,  bearing  men  and 
nations  onward  in  the  grij>  of  great  forces  that  clearly  have  an 
order  within  them  and  a pnrpo.se  to  fulfill.  Both  men  and  gov- 

489 


erniTients  s<?em  to  l)e  like  playthiiif^s  in  the  hands  of  these  unseen 
energies.  Economic  facts  are  mucli  stronger  than  men,  and  the 
man  must  he  blind  who  cannot  s(*e  that  hack  of  these  e<-onomic 
facts,  and  handling  tluun  with  a wisdom  and  a will  that  are  abso- 
lute, stands  God.  As  Mr.  Outerhridge  said  once  in  a paper  on  ship- 
ping and  its  infimmce  upon  international  unity,  “So  irr<?sistihle 
are  the  unse«m  forces  bringing  to  the  surface  more  enlighteiK^l 
views  as  more  difficult  comlitions  arise,  that  it  suggests  tlie  que.s- 
tioTi — whether  the  all-wise  Greator  is  not  using  economic  law 
and  necessity  as  one  of  tlie  greatest  fundamental  forces  in  ujdift- 
ing  the  moral  character  and  mental  vision  of  humanity.” 

It  is  increasingly  clear  that  in  this  great  prwess  of  progress 
those  races  will  be  able  to  .serve  best  and  contribute  most  which 
can  bring  into  the  common  trea.sure  the  best  character  and  the 
pure.st  faith.  Tt  is  the  want  of  character  or  of  those  qualities 
of  character  which  make  living  progre.ss  |)Ossible  which  is  hold- 
ing back  the  Asiatic  races.  Tn  some  qualities  of  character  they 
smf)a.ss  the  Western  nations  but  not  in  the  qualities  that  con- 
tribute to  living  progress.  In  those  qualities  perhaps  the  char- 
acter of  India  is  most  deficient,  so  that  Mr.  Dickinson’s  remark 
is  justified,  that  India  has  more  to  gain  and  le.'^s  to  lose  in  the 
contact  with  Western  ])eople  than  any  other  A.siatic  nation. 
But  increasingly  all  the  peoples  of  A.sia  are  beginning  to  feel 
their  need  of  the  constructive  and  collective  ])Hnciples  of  life 
which  are  sweeping  the  world  onward  under  the  leadership  of 
the  Western  races  and  which  have  the  purest  fountain  of  their 
virtures  and  the  be.st  corrective  of  their  vices  in  Christianity. 
Yuan  Shi  Kai  is  re])orted  to  have  said,  “I  am  not  a Christian, 
I am  a Confuciani.st,  but  unless  the  ethics  of  Chri.stianity  shall 
dominate  the  scholarshi])  of  China,  there  is  no  hoj>e  for  the  Be- 
public.”  It  is  not  a (piestion  of  domination  merely.  The  real 
l)roblem  is  one  of  energization  and  it  is  not  a matter  of  Chinese 
scholarshij)  alone  but  of  Asiatic  character. 

It  is  not  ])ersonal  character  alone  that  is  neede<l,  although 
that  is  the  fundamental  thing.  It  is  personal  character  so  gen- 
eralized and  massed  that  it  can  function  through  a national 
consciousne.ss.  The  Eastern  nations  are  becoming  aware  of  this 
also,  and  at  the  same  time  that  they  have  to  find  the  springs  at 
which  individual  character  can  be  forme<l,  they  must  build  the 
sense  of  national  ]>ersonality,  which  can  only  be  bulit  out  of  a 
right  racial  character,  in  which  the  virtue  of  personal  and  family 
life  is  collectively  masse<l.  Some  of  the  Asiatic  nations  are  in 
danger  of  thinking  that  the  national  personality  can  be  devel- 
opecl  b}’  itself,  but  most  of  them  are  realizing  that  the  two 
must  come  together. 

It  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  if  .some  of  the.se  peoples  that  are 
struggling  so  hard  to  develop  a national  conscioiisue.ss,  are  slow 
in  rising  to  the  thought  of  that  higher  nationaliW  for  which 
our  small  ju’esent  political  nationalisms  are  but  the  prepara- 
tion, and  every  Western  example  which  sets  the  nation  above 

490 


humanity  is  a blow  at  the  processes  of  progress  in  Asia  and 
sets  back  the  slow  struggle  of  the  Asiatic  nations  out  of  their 
isolation  into  the  larger  fellowship  and  ministry  of  mankind. 

Nothing  is  more  important  than  that  we  should  stimulate  the 
faith  and  courage  of  the  Asiatic  nations  iu  their  struggle.  It 
is  pitiful  to  see  an  imlividual  man  who  has  lost  the  hope  that 
he  can  ever  attain  or  achieve.  It  is  yet  more  pitiful  to  see  a 
nation  which  has  begun  to  despair.  “I  sometimes  wonder,” 
said  an  able  Indian  who  had  been  educated  in  Great  Britain, 
“whether  it  will  ever  be  i)ossible  for  us  to  do  it.  We  can  see  the 
goal  but  we  seem  to  lack  the  nerve  to  win  it.”  It  is  a dreadful 
thing  when  this  mood  creeps  from  individuals  into  the  coiiscious- 
ness  of  a race.  We  ought  to  do  eveiything  in  our  power  to  build 
up  instead  the  spirit  of  liope  and  boundless  confidence  in  every 
race.  Not  that  it  can  do  evendhing  that  every  other  race  can 
do, — our  Western  races  are  utterly  unequal  among  them.selves, — 
but  it  must  be  made  to  feel  that  it  can  make  its  contribution 
and  do  its  work  and  that  no  other  race  can  fulfill  its  mission 
for  it.  Anything  that  we  do  in  trying  to  help  the  Easteim 
races,  either  govern  men  tally,  educationally,  or  through  religion, 
will  be  an  injnrv’  to  them  and  an  offeiirse  to  the  boundlessly  hope- 
ful and  trustful  spirit  of  God,  if  it  results  in  undermining  the 
riglit  ambitions  and  the  jnst  pride  of  Eastern  j)eoples.  If,  .some- 
times, these  ambitions  ajipear  to  ns  excessive  and  this  pride, 
a foolish  thing,  we  onglit  still  to  rejoice  that  they  are  erring  on 
that  side  instead  of  on  tlie  side  of  a craven  accej)tance  of  the 
doctriTie  of  their  inferiority.  I think  tliere  is  a ])rinci])le  liere 
wliicli  we  ne(‘d  to  keej)  ninch  more  clearly  in  view,  and  which 
lias  its  large  bearing  on  snch  jiroblems  as  the  teaching  in  Eng- 
li.sh  in  Chinese  schools  and  the  develojnnent  of  indejiendence  in 
the  native  chnrches. 

At  this  time  of  increasing  intimacy  of  racial  relationships  and 
of  overwrought  racial  susjiicion,  it  is  the  duty  of  Christian  men 
and  esjiecially  of  the  missionary  enterju-i.se  to  .set  an  examjde  of 
jnst  and  generous  race  judgment.  It  is  often  necessary  to 
form  onr  minds  and  to  exjire.ss  them  on  the  subject  of  particular 
acts,  bnt  it  is  a dangerons  thing  to  extend  these  judgments  on 
acts  into  judgments  on  racial  character  or  national  jmrjiose. 
The  jire.sent  governments  in  the  Fai-  East  have  as  much  claim 
to  jmrjm.ses  of  good  faith  as  any  other  governments  and  we  might 
to  judge  them  jirecisely  as  we  would  wish  to  be  judged  our- 
.s<*lves.  To  condemu  tlumi  bis-ause  they  are  oi-iental,  to  ex])re.ss  of 
them  a distrust  which  we  do  not  feel  toward  western  govern- 
ments “because  tlu\se  are  white  men’s  governments,”  is  not  only 
un-Christian,  it  is  foolish  and  wrong.  In  his  “Fifteen  Decisive 
Battles  of  the  World,”  in  tin*  chajder  on  the  victory  of  the 
Americans  at  Saratoga.  Creasy  wrote,  “The  imi»ortance  of  the 
|>ow<*r  of  the  Fnit(*d  States  luMiig  then  firmly  jilanted  along 
the  Facitic  ajqilies  not  only  to  the  New  AVorld,  but  to  the  Old. 
Ojijiosite  to  San  Francisco,  on  the  coast  of  that  ocean,  lie  the 

491 


wealtliy  hnl  docrepil  pni])ireK  of  China  and  Japan.  Nnnierons 
groups  of  islets  stud  tlie  larger  part,  of  the  intervening  sea,  and 
form  convenient  stepping-stones  for  the  progress  of  commerce 
or  ambition.  The  intercourse  of  traffic  between  these  ancient 
A.siatic  monarchies,  and  the  young  Anglo-American  Republic, 
must  be  rapid  and  extensive.  Any  attempt  of  the  Chinese  or 
Japanese  rulers  to  check  it,  will  only  accelerate  an  armed  col- 
lision. The  American  will  either  buy  or  force  his  way.  Between 
such  populations  as  that  of  China  and  Japan  on  the  one  side,  and 
that  of  the  United  States  on  the  other — the  former  haughty, 
formal,  and  insolent ; the  latter  bold,  intrusive,  and  unscrupu- 
lous— causes  of  quarrel  mu.st,  sooner  or  later,  ari.se.  The  results 
of  such  a quarrel  cannot  be  doubted.  America  will  scarcely 
imitate  the  forbearance  showm  by  England  at  the  end  of  our  late 
war  with  the  Celestial  Empire;  and  the  conquests  of  China  and 
Japan  by  the  fleets  and  armies  of  the  United  States,  are  events 
which  many  now  living  are  likely  to  witne.ss.  Compared  with 
the  magnitude  of  such  changes  in  dominion  of  the  Old  World, 
the  certain  ascendance  of  the  Anglo-Americans  over  Central  and 
Southern  America,  seem.s  a matter  of  secondary  importance. 
Well  may  w'e  repeat  T)e  Tocqueville’s  w'ords,  that  the  growing 
power  of  this  commonw’ealth  is  ‘Un  fait  entierement  nouveau 
dans  le  monde,  et  dont  Timagination  elle-meme  ne  saurait  .saisir 
la  partee.’  ” 

To  this  paragraph  in  the  text  Creasy  added  the  following  foot- 
note, “These  remarks  w'ere  written  in  May,  1851,  and  now.  in 
May,  1852,  a pow'erful  squadron  of  American  war-steamers  has 
been  sent  to  Japan,  for  the  ostensible  purpose  of  securing  protec- 
tion for  the  crew^s  of  American  vessels  shipwrecked  on  the 
Japanese  coast.s,  but  also  evidently  for  important  ulterior  pur- 
poses.” This  was  the  interpretation  wiiich  one  of  the  noblest- 
minded  historians  of  his  time  placed  upon  Commodore  Perrs'’s 
expedition  to  Japan.  Whatever  w'e  may  think  of  this  judgment 
of  Crea.sy’s  w'e  ought  to  think  regarding  similar  judgments  of 
our  own.  Now  and  then  a nation  may  have  a government  so 
bad  that  it  de.serves  to  be  called  wholly  bad,  but  no  nation  was 
ever  as  bad  as  that,  and  Christians  are  the  la.st  people  in  the 
world  who  are  justifiefl  in  forming  or  expressing  an  indiscrimi- 
nate judgment  of  suspicion  or  condemnation  against  any  race. 
We  ought  to  credit  everv’  race  with  a better  character  than  it 
has.  We  ought  to  hold  for  it  a higher  and  nobler  faith  than 
it  can  hold  for  itself  until  it  becomes  a Christian  race.  It  was 
by  His  belief  in  possibilities  of  human  character  which  were 
not  actual  that  Jesus  Christ  made  them  actual.  The  faith  of 
the  missionarv'  enterprise  in  the  races  for  whom  it  works  should 
be  as  the  faith  of  Christ  in  men  and  in  man. 

“Why  what  but  faith,  do  we  abhor 
And  idolize  each  other  for — 

Faith  in  our  evil  or  our  good. 

Which  is  or  is  not  understood 

Aright  by  those  we  love  or  those 

We  hate,  thence  called  our  friends  or  foes.” 

492 


These  geueral  reflections  have  a deeper  significance  for  mis- 
sions than  it  is  necessary  to  point  ont  fuidher,  but  one  other 
word  should  be  said  regarding  the  place  of  missions  a,s  a force 
in  this  movement  of  human  progress.  Government,  trade,  edu- 
cation and  religion  are  the  four  great  agencies  which  are  at 
work  in  this  process.  It  is  not  uecessarj^  to  say  which  of  them 
is  the  more  powerful,  becau.se  the  principles  and  spirit  of  true 
religion  should  pervade  them  all.  And  yet  we  do  believe  that 
the  work  which  religion  is  to  do  is  the  most  imijortant  work 
of  all  and  those  men  and  women  who  go  with  their  lives,  the 
example  of  their  homes,  to  live  among  the  non-Christian  nations, 
to  teach  them  new  truth  and  to  incarnate  that  truth  before  them 
in  individual  character,  in  the  fundamental  social  institution  of 
the  family  and  in  the  life  of  the  community,  are  the  greatest 
factors  of  progress  and  are  using  the  most  fundamental  and 
effective  method.  They  represent  in  the  purest  fonn  the  truth 
of  which  in  its  political  correlations,  I’rofessor  Reinsch  speaks 
in  his  book  on  “Colonial  Government,”  “The  idea  that  a numer- 
ous population,  covering  large  territories,  cannot  be  by  political 
means  rai.sed  en  mas.se  to  a higher  stage  of  development,  and 
that,  if  political  and  social  progress  is  to  come  about  in  such 
regions,  the  advanced  methods  and  institutions  must  first  be 
worked  out  in  smaller  areas,  in  cities  and  towns,  which  may 
thus  become  a model  to  the  surrounding  country, — this  idea  is 
based  on  the  .soundest  knowledge  of  the  laws  of  politics.  To 
civilize  by  bayonets,  to  educate  by  force,  to  render  moral  by 
laws, — these  are  all  rtoj>ian  notions,  although  they  appear  under 
a strangely  un-Utopian  guise.  People.s,  like  individuals,  can  be 
deeply  and  permanently  inlluenced  only  through  a more  quiet, 
less  obtrusive,  apj)eal  to  tlieir  inner  nature  by  example.  It  ma}’ 
be  the  example  of  righteous  living,  or  the  example  of  eliicient 
methods  in  political  administration  and  in  industry.  Industrial 
example  has  done  more  to  transform  tlie  Orient  in  the  last  decade 
than  has  all  the  imlitical  action  of  centuries.  To  impose  upon 
a backward  ])eople  institutions  excellent  in  our  eyes,  but  for 
which  its  historic  exi)erience  has  not  as  yet  fitted  it,  is  vanity 
and  folly;  to  give  within  a limited  sphei-e  and  area  the  example 
of  correct  methods  and  honest  work,  would  .seem  an  a])i)roacn 
to  a statesmanlike  i)olicy.” 

The  work  that  mi.ssions  are  doing  and  the  mere  presence  of 
mi.ssionaries,  esj)ecially  if  they  are  American  missionaries,  in  any 
field  exert  intluence  far  beyond  our  understanding.  Most  of  this 
influence  is  just  what  we  would  wish  it  to  be,  but  .some  of  it 
I)erhap.s,  with  or  without  our  knowledge,  takes  fonns  that  we 
might  not  have  desiiasl  to  give  to  it.  In  one  sense,  of  course, 
all  this  can  be  left  to  that  great  energy  of  life  of  which  I have 
.spoken,  which  is  working  in  the  world  and  which  sweeps  along 
the  endeavors  of  men  toward  the  great  ends  of  God,  but  neverthe- 
le.ss  we  are  not  excused  from  the  dut}'  of  j)erpetually  .scrutiniz- 
ing our  intluence  to  sre  if  in  any  regard  we  can  strip  it  of  ele- 

493 


iiients  of  wonkiioss  :ni(l  Iniiij;  i1  nioi-o  fully  into  accord  witli  llic 
cpiiti-al  and  mil i-ainiindcd  spiril  of  tlu*  <;oK|)(d.  We  cannol  <io 
oiil  as  oIIkm-  Ilian  AiiKM-ican  iiiissionai-ics.  Wlial  wo  arc,  wo  aro. 
lint  W(*  coi'fainly  can  slrivt*  (o  lay  asidi*  onr  Ainoricanisni  and 
to  ajipoar,  insl(*ad,  as  calliolic  nion  rojirc'sonlin'^  Iho  universal 
jl()s])ol.  (’(M-1ainly  w(*  can  avoid  tlio  folly  of  Fourth  of  duly 
colohrat ions  in  niission  schools.  Wc*  can  use  the  national  tla^j 
rather  than  our  own.  Wo  can  rofi-ain  from  toachinj^  history 
with  too  much  of  the  Amoiicaii  accent.  We  can  rememlM^r 
that  it  is  the  j^osjiel  that  was  jiroclainK^l  in  Fale,stine  and  not 
an  American  version  of  it  that  we  are  to  carry,  and  that  oui- 
business  is  to  helji  the  races  to  which  we  have  j^one  to  achieve 
a character  that  is  all  their  own.  If,  on  the  other  hand,  it  is 
jiroclaimed  in  riiina  and  throuj’hout  the  world  that  American 
mission  schools  ju-oduce  re])ul)lics,  we  can  only  wonder  that 
there  i.s  not  less  unrest  in  nei»hhorin<;  lands  with  regar<l  to 
what  we  are  doinj»-  there.  We  must  make  it  clear  that  we  aiv 
not  an  agency  for  the  dissemination  of  political  ideas  hut  are 
mini.stei-s  to  the  racial  character  and  nationality  to  which  we  go. 

No  enterjirise  is  more  in  need  of  calmness,  of  patience,  of 
steady  ability  to  hohl  the  jiersjieclive,  of  clear  disceniment  of 
the  large  and  distant,  not  to  be  lost  in  the  small  and  near. 
Mi.ssions  ought  not  to  be  rushed  into  ])reci]iitate  action.  s])ecially 
in  that  border  land  where  the  jiroblems  of  mi.s.sions  and  the 
jiroblems  of  government  interlace.  The  riiurch  of  Flirist  has 
time,  all  the  time  there  is,  ami  while  .she  needs  to  be  in  ha.ste  in 
her  own  work,  she  can  afford  to  wait  indefinitely  for  the  .settle- 
ment of  any  jiroblem  which  she  cannot  settle  on  the  spot  by  love 
and  faith. 

III.  The  central  elemental  agency  of  missions  is  the  laxly  of 
mi.ssionaries.  After  we  have  recogiiize<l  all  that  God  will  do  in 
coiitemjit  of  the  men  he  uses  and  all  that  the  church  may  do 
by  prayer  through  any  agents  she  may  send  out.  it  remains 
true  that  the  work  will  be  .stronger  or  Aveaker  in  proportion  to 
the  (piality  of  the  men  and  women  Avho  are  doing  it.  Tt  is  l)e- 
cau.se  the  missionaries  rejiresent  the  standard  of  character  and 
devotion  and  ability  which  they  do,  that  it  is  such  a privilege  ami 
in.spiration  to  visit  the  mission  field.  But  the  strongest  mi.s- 
sionaries Avlsh  they  Avere  still  stronger  and  long  for  a larger 
reinforcement  of  yet  stronger  recruits  from  home.  The  Board 
is  justifie<l  accordingly,  in  maintaining  high  requirements  for 
mis.sionary  appointments,  in  seeking  to  secure  improA'ed  train- 
ing, in  resisting  the  acceptance  of  Ioav  ide-als  of  education  and 
of  ])OAver.  But  Iioav  are  strong  men  and  Avomen  to  l>e  found 
and  hoAV  can  they  be  identified?  Many  of  those  who  think 
themselve.s  strong  turn  out  to  be  the  AA'eakest  ami  c'andidates 
highly  praised  in  their  testimonials  may  prove  far  inferior  to 
other  candidates  whose  qualities  had  made  thein.selves  less  con- 
spicuous. Furthermore  the  most  essential  qualities  are  those 
Avhich  it  is  most  difficult  to  determine.  It  is  evident  that  neither 

494 


education  nor  training  nor  exi>erience  at  home  can  guarantee 
efficiency  on  tlie  field.  lOfficiency  depends  rather  on  tlie  balance 
of  ])ersouality,  the  ])oise  of  spirit,  the  correlation  of  energy  and 
judgment  within,  and  of  both  of  these  to  the  task  without.  I 
cannot  express  better  what  ought  to  be  said  on  this  point  than 
to  quote  a letter  which  Dr.  W.  W.  White  of  the  New  York  Bible 
Training  School  received  .some  time  ago  from  an  experienced 
woman  mi.ssionary  in  Asia. 

September  14,  1914. 

“Dear  Dr.  White: 

My  training  for  mis.sionary  work  was  nil.  My  only  fitness 
was  in  my  convictions  concerning  the  need  of  the  world  and 
our  Lord  as  the  answer  to  every  need.  Whatever  of  .strength  or 
ability  for  work  I may  have  <leveloi)ed  in  the  thirty  years  of  my 
life  has  been  the  outcome  of  experience  on  the  spot.  I con- 
ducted the  highe.st  school  we  have  for  girls  for  six  years,  and 
organized  it  for  its  ])re.sent  high  and  noraial  school  work.  I 
estuhli.shed  the  first  kindergarten  work  of  the  mission.  Yet  1 
had  had  no  training  for  any  of  the.se.  I organized,  without  sug- 
gestions of  any  sort  from  any  one,  the  Bible  school  which  has 
been  training  the  Bible  women  of  the  mis.sion  for  22  years.  I 
have  built  one  of  the  be.st  buildings  in  the  mission  without  advice 
or  a.ssistance,  and  have  jn.st  ]>lanned  three  other  large  buildings, 
yet  I nev'er  .studied  architecture  nor  draft.smanship.  1 have  been 
serving  on  the  finance  committee  of  the  mission  for  year.s'  and 
have  been  auditing  the  accounts  of  the  men,  yet  I never  had  a 
liking  for  mathematics,  nor  instruction  in  book  keeping.  I 
taught  myself  double  entry  under  the  pre.ssure  of  the  necessities 
of  work.  1 had  a very  desultory  education  and  a childhood 
ex])erience  which  would  work  ruin  with  the  be.st  of  minds,  yet 
I acquired  the  language  and  have  been  serving  on  the  literature 
committee  for  year.s,  ami  just  recently  have  been  ai)i)ointed  to 
that  , of  the . I was  timid  and  nervous,  afraid  of  every- 

thing, but  I have  been  called  to  do  j)ublic  speaking  that  I know 
of  no  other  woman  having  been  aske<l  to  do  in  this  jmrt  of  the 
country.  I have  been  aske<l  to  take  turn  with  the  men  in  the 
j)uli)it  in  a Sunday  evening  service,  but  thought  it  wise  to 
refu.se.  I have  undertaken  new  work,  ami  projiosed  new  schemes 
of  work  to  the  mission,  ami  have  kej)!  in  advance  as  to  initiative 
in  many  lines. 

This  frank  statement  ari.ses  from  no  conceit  of  my.self  or  of 
the  (piality  or  n^ults  of  any  undertaking.  I have  natural  intel- 
ligence, ami  surely  the  Sj)irit  of  the  Lord  has  often  taken  away 
fear  and  I have  aj)iKmred  naturally  daring  and  courageous  to 
.some  who  do  not  know  what  is  beneath  the  surface,  l^nt  all 
the.st*  thirty  ye^irs  I have  greatly  ami  j)ainfully  regretted  the 
lack  of  oj)portunity,  not  for  .sj)ecial  training,  but  for  the  disci- 
pline of  general  training — discipline  of  mind  rather  than  general 
or  technical  knowledge.  The  ability  to  concentrate  the  atten- 
tion, to  work  through  to  the  end,  to  overcome  obstacles,  to  form 

495 


right  judgments,  to  choose  wise  ends,  to  fit  means  to  the  ends, 
to  persevere  in  a steady  course  to  attain  the  ends, — these  are 
the  really  crucial  points  and  tests  of  missionary  fitness  and  suc- 
cess. In  my  judgment  of  the  value  of  training  I have  to  take 
account  of  what  I see  going  on  around  me. 

Take  the  case  of  a young  man  fresh  from  college  and  from 
business  experience  of  a technical  kind.  He  is  put  to  study 
the  language,  but  doesn’t  apply  him.self,  shirks  without  seeming 
to  realize  it,  studies  in  a desultory  way,  allows  his  work  to  give 
way  easily  as  if  in  the  line  of  the  least  resistance.  At  the  end 
of  a certain  period  those  as.sociated  with  him  feel  that  he  is 
like  an  irre.sponsible  boy — do&sn’t  know  how  to  work  hard  or 
steadily,  nor  how  to  study  with  that  .severe  mental  application 
necessary  to  really  acquire  an  Oriental  language — excuses  him- 
self, evidently  doesn’t  intend  to  learn,  refmses  to  face  the  fact 
that  he  will  make  a specialist,  indeed,  of  himself  by  shutting 
himself  from  true  or  real  contact  with  the  majority  of  the  com- 
munity. Here  there  is  no  lack  of  general  and  .special  training. 
The  lack  is  in  the  want  of  a deep  sen.se  of  responsibility  which 
makes  a man  willing  to  work  painfully  in  order  to  achieve  an 
object,  and  in  the  want  of  deep  views  of  moral  obligation  in  the 
choice  of  his  object. 

2.  Take  the  case  of  one  who  is  reported  to  have  steadily 
worked  for  ten  years  to  fit  herself  to  be  a missionary  doctor. 
From  the  moment  she  steps  out  of  the  train  until  she  resigns  her 
connections,  fourteen  months  later,  she  quarrels  and  complains 
as  to  her  circumstances  of  whatever  kind,  thinks  she  must  a.ssest 
herself  and  fight  for  honor  and  considei*ation,  pushes  every 
matter  to  an  extreme,  talks  indiscreetly,  makes  herself  unwel- 
come by  proud  resentment  of  eveiy  natural  and  common  devia- 
tion from  a doctor’s  directions,  lets  everybody  know  she  is  not 
a person  to  be  insulted,  when  no  one  has  the  smallest  thought 

* or  intention  of  insult,  and  puts  everybody  into  a quandary  in 
social  relations.  Yet  in  addition  to  training  and  experience  as 
a nurse  must  be  added  a special  course  of  Bible  study  giving 
a good  knowledge  of  the  Bible  and  ability  to  “talk  theologj’;” 
then  a full  medical  course  with  a degree.  These  years  of  prepa- 
ration end  in  fourteen  months  of  discontent  and  inability  to  fit 
into  any  position  with  grace  and  common  sense,  and  Christian 
principle  moderating  feeling  and  speech.  The  failure  is  in  the 
moral  realm.  In  this  connection  I think  of  another  missionary 
doctor  with  no  better  training  or  knowledge  working  on  for 
thirty  years,  quiet,  dignified,  unassuming,  sensible,  steady — a 
great  power  for  Christ,  in  her  fi^ne  systematic  medical  work, 
not  losing  sight  at  all  of  the  higher  ends  of  a missionary’s  life 
and  work.  The  differences  are  entirely  moral  and  not  intel- 
lectual. 

3.  Take  the  case  of  one  trained,  as  a nurse,  having  experience 
in  general  hospital  work  and  with  the  insane.  After  this,  two 
years  work  as  a kindergartner.  On  the  mission  field,  from  the 

496 


beginning  to  the  end  of  her  four  years,  she  was  ever  ingeniously 
forming  new  plans  and  forever  giving  them  up  when  she  met 
a difficulty.  An  obstacle  was  a cogent  reason  for  turning  aside 
to  something  else,  and  of  this  habit  of  mind  she  was  entirely 
unconscious.  The  result  was  that  she  never  used  her  knowledge 
as  a nurse  or  a kindergartner  in  any  effective  way.  She  never 
related  her  knowledge  to  her  circumstances.  She  was  always 
at  the  beginning  of  things  and  was  rendered  unhappy  by  her 
own  instability.  No  lack  here  of  knowledge,  special  and  tech- 
nical. There  was  a lack  of  stability  and  of  perseverance,  and  of 
ability  to  overcome  obstacles  and  to  achieve  something  in  spite 
of  them.  Given  a beautiful  room  in  America  all  fitted  up,  the 
children  all  to  hand,  sweet  and  fresh,  a fine  piano  and  an  accom- 
plished musician  to  play  it,  she  would  have  been  a successful 
kindergartner.  Given  dirty  little  children  irregular,  careless 
and  unready,  no  room,  no  funds,  mud  and  dirt  school  build- 
ing, no  materials,  no  helpers,  no  piano,  no  assistance,  ignorance 
and  indifference  to  overcome,  untidiness,  disobedience,  unfaith- 
fulness to  contend  with — “well,  it  really  isn’t  worth  while.” 
And  a new  plan  is  projected  to  be  given  up  for  similar  reasons. 
What  can  I say  when  I thus  see  the  best  of  opportunities,  the 
best  of  general,  special  and  technical  training  thrown  away? 

4.  A young  woman  who  seems  to  have  special  fitness  for  work 
with  children,  very  highly  experienced  in  school  work  comes  out 
to  take  charge  of  primary  schools.  Everybody  and  everything 
offend  her  delicate  sensibilities.  Pugh  ! they  smell  of  oil ! Faugh, 
thev^  are  dirtj'!  Horrors,  you  mention  yonr  undergarments  to 
the  washerman ! Terrors,  they  a.sked  me  what  my  brother’s  sal- 
ary was!  AVithin  two  3’ears  she  went  home  on  the  verge  of  in- 
sanity without  having  .suffered  a single  real  hardship  or  having 
done  a stroke  of  real  work.  The  climate,  the  doctors  said.  I feel 
entirelj'  convince<l  that  that  was  a small  factor.  It  was  the 
unbalancing  of  overwrought  sensibilitie.s,  too  highly  refined  and 
I)roceeding  ui>on  false  estimates  of  values  in  life.  Over  modesty, 
over  delicacy,  over  sensibility,  .so  that  everj'  event  or  circum- 
.stance  produces  a shock  that  frequently  repeated,  culminates 
in  a break  of  the  nervous  .system  and  unbalances  the  mind. 
Plenty  of  training,  ex])erience  and  knowledge  here.  Had  there 
been  a spirit  strong  enough,  a mind  balajiced  ju.st  eimugh,  there 
were  no  rea.son  for  such  a crash.  How  can  I telt  what  will 
produce  this,  and  what  kind  of  training  could  have  provided  it! 

One  hu-ge  difficulty  you  have  to  deal  with  is  the  fact  that  in 
accustomed  .surroundings  1he.se  things  never,  or  perhaps  I should 
say  seldom,  a])pear.  It  is  iu  the  unaccustomed  surroundings 
that  the  test  realh'  comes,  and  then  it  is  too  late. 

I went  to  New  York,  not  for  the  purpose  of  study  or  re.st, 
hut  in  order  to  .see  what  v’ou  were  doing,  and  to  observe  j’our 
methods.  I had  my  own  Bible  Schcml  in  view  and  was  think- 
ing I might  improve  on  courses  of  study  or  on  methods.  I did 
neither  as  a result,  because  of  the  large  differences  of  circum- 

497 


stances  of  the  mental  allaininents  of  yonr  and  my  students.  The 
two  classes  are  on  sncli  an  al>sohitely  different  jdane.  Could 
yon  succeed  in  makiii{>:  it  cleai-  to  yonr  missionary  candi<lafes 
that  re-duplication  of  their  school  would  be  stidly  impossible, 
that  out  of  the  mass  of  their  learninj?  they  must  learn  to  unlearn 
and  bef?in  to  study  the  people  just  where  they  are,  and  get  down 
with  go(Ml  grace  and  kindness  to  their  level  and  find  sr)me  effec- 
tive way  of  lifting  that  level,  you  woiild  ini])art  a veiw  valuable 
lesson.  I found  your  course><  of  study  excellent.  I thought  you 
were  expecting  too  much  of  a g(M»d  nundier  of  the  students,  many 
of  whom  I thought  were  being  jmsliwl  by  the  large  demands  .of 
successive  teachers  to  cover  too  much  ground  to  do  anything 
thoroughly.  1 am  not  sure  yet  whether  yonr  plan  of  work  is 
not  too  large  and  ambitious  to  be  carried  out  with  entire  suc- 
cess, in  view  of  the  ordinary  students’  ability.  Yet  I thoroughly 
sympathized  with  the  main  and  central  idea  of  yonr  work.  I 
had  just  been  attending  the  cla.'<ses  in  a western  theological 
.seminary  and  saw  very  jilainly  why  1 never  hear  any  exposition 
of  Scripture  from  the  pul])it — only  .sermons  of  the  nature  of 
lectures,  connected  with  some  text  by  i-ea.son  of  .some  sugges- 
tive expression  contained  therein.  So  I sluuild  say  that  yonr 
courses  of  study  offer  abundant  oi»portunity  for  ac(piiring  that 
general  and  s]>ecial  ktiowlnlge  of  the  Scripture  that  every  mis- 
sionars'  should  have,  and  that  your  students  have  the  advantage 
of  being  traine<l  in  faith  rather  than  in  “un-faith,”  which  latter 
T think  to  be  a definite  result  of  the  present  day  theological 
training.  This  last  is  the  result  also  of  the  calibre  of  the  .stu- 
dents’ minds.  Few  study  enough,  think  deeply  enough  to  be 
real  scholars,  and  stop])ing  their  clock  of  progress  ju.st  where 
their  seminary  studies  close  they  go  on  (pioting  profe.ssor  so 
and  so  to  the  idtter  end,  and  the  Bible  isn’t  in  it.  I highly  value 
the  college  training  and  the  work  of  such  schools  as  yours,  yet 
it  is  ]K>s.sible  that  after  having  done  fine  work  in  either  or  both, 
there  may  be  failure  on  the  mission  field.  It  is  necessju-y  to 
deepen  the  moral  nature,  to  jtrodnce  definite  ami  strong  convic- 
tions, yet  to  leave  the  mind  elastic  and  adaptable;  it  is  as 
necessary  to  imbue  your  students  with  a large  <legree  of  ordi- 
nary common  sense  as  with  piety,  a common  sense  that  takes 
people  a.s  they  find  them  and  isn’t  foolish  enough  to  hold  uj)  the 
whole  circle  of  their  ocqnaintance  like  liighwaAunen,  at  tl»e 
muzzle  of  their  little  standards,  .social  or  religious.  Teach  them 
the  kind  of  mathematics  which  will  enable  them  to  calculate  the 
length  of  time  in  which  one  may  reasonably  expect  a nation  to 
change  its  habits  of  thought  aud  ideals  of  action,  and  to  this  ad<l 
a sense  for  the  facts  of  hLstory,  and  this  may  keep  them  from 
cavilling  at  the  moral  attainments  of  the  “native  Christian,’' 
or  at  the  methods  of  the  “old  mi.ssionaries.”  Keep  right  ou  with 
your  Bible  work  but  address  yovir  strongest  etforts  to  the  spir- 
itual side  of  your  work  rather  than  the  intellectual.  The  latter 
is  hiffhiv  necessiirv,  but  because  I think  even*  failure  I have 

498 


seen  on  tlie  mission  field  lias  been  the  result  of  want  of  moral 
and  spiritual  earnestness.  I think  sometimes  we  are  in  danger  of 
over  emjdiasizing  its  value. 

Vonrs,  in  the  fellowshiji  of  seeking  the  right  way." 

Yonng  nii.s.sionaries  owe  many  duties  to  the  older-  men  and 
women  whom  they  will  find  on  the  field  and  older  missionaries 
owe  many  duties,  which  they  are  better  able  to  discharge,  toward 
the  new  mis.sionaries  who  come  ont  to  join  them.  Two  of  these 
were  referred  to  more  than  once,  one  the  duty  of  conferring  with 
the  younger  missionaries,  taking  them  into  confidence,  telling 
them  the  things  which  they  can  only  learn  wisely  from  the  older 
missionaries  ami  dignifying  their  jiosition  and  heljiing  them  to 
find  their  work,  and  secoml,  to  refrain  from  criticizing  the  new 
nii.ssionary  to  the  older  native  workers  or  to  any  body  else.  In 
his  memorial  article  on  Dr.  Bergen,  Dr.  (’halfant  .says:  “He 
was  quite  as  ready  as  anyone  else  to  listen  to  the  familiar  tales 
of  woe,  (of  the  rhinesei.  But  he  .set  his  face  like  a Hint  against 
the  temptation  to  discuss  with  his  ('hinese  friends  things  that 
had  better  he  left  nmliscnssed  and,  ]»ai  ticnlarly,  the  doings  and 
character  of  his  fellow  missionaries.” 

We  have  met  .sojne  missionaries  who  have  been  doing  si)lendid 
work  with  an  imperfect  knowhslge  of  the  \ernacnlar  but  they 
have  been  exce]>tions  and  the  Hue  sight  has  been  to  .see  the  nii.s- 
.sionaries who  have  j»erfectly  masteriNl  the  language  of  the  people. 
Again  and  again  we  watched  audiences  hang  with  breathless 
delight  on  the  addiess  of  a mi.ssionary  who  knew  their  language 
and  could  u.se  it  better  than  they  could  theni.selve.s,  whose 
acquaintance  with  their  sacred  bnoks  eipialled  that  of  their 
priests,  who  knew  their  proverbs,  and  tlieir  life,  and  to  whom, 
accordingly,  as  he  jueached  the  go.sj)e.l,  every  door  of  their 
mimls  was  ajar.  We  have  seen  the  importance  of  sensible  and 
right  conduct  on  the  jiart  of  missionaries  in  traveling.  Some- 
thing more  might  be  .said  mi  this  subject  by  some  one  of  the 
older  mi.ssionaries  to  the  new  missionarie.s’  conferences.  We 
have  swn  the  influence  of  courtesy  and  deference  and  love  and 
trustfulness  on  the  j»art  of  missionaries  toward  the  native  peojde. 
On  these  iwiints  also  more  should  be  .said  to  tbe  new  missionaries 
by  older  ones.  But  if  men  and  women  do  not  alreaily  have 
such  disjio.sitions  ami  characters  as  to  make  advice  on  thes<‘ 
IMiints  unneces.sary,  it  is  to  be  feared  that  the  ailvice  will  be 
inelfective.  We  have  sc*en  afresh  the  great  perils  of  the  mis- 
sionary life;  jierils  intimately  a.ssociat(*il  with  the  jirivileges  of 
this  high  calling;  the  jn-ivilege  of  the  highest  sjiiritual  ideals  and 
the  iierils  of  toying  with  them;  the  juivilege  of  laying  founda- 
tions and  the  jieril  of  laying  them  with  nntemjiered  mortar  or  of 
W(Mxl  and  hay  and  stubble;  the  pi-ivilege  of  heljiing  the  weak  and 
childlike  and  the  jieril  of  jiaternalisin,  of  taking  the  jilace  of  the 
master  and  overlord;  the  jirivilege  of  heljdug  jieojde  materiallv, 
of  not  meivly  saying  to  them,  be  clot  bed  and  fed,  but  of  dealiiig 
with  their  naknliu'ss  and  their  hunger  ami  the  peril  of  beinf 

499 


enclosed  in  the  material  activities;  the  privilege  of  distinctly 
spiritual  service  like  Christ’s  and  the  peril  of  actually  neglect- 
ing it  or  of  hokling  it  as  a tlieoiy  and  not  doing  it  as  a life; 
the  privilege  of  being  in  a work  which  has  laste<i  for  centuries 
and  will  last,  of  knowing  that  what  we  do  is  a part  of  the  eter- 
nal enterprise  of  God,  and  the  peril  of  slumbering  upon  this 
great  truth  and  being  content  with  less  Ilian  the  will  of  God  for 
our  time  and  of  forgetting  that  the  generation  passes  by  and 
that  what  we  do  we  must  do  quickly. 

IV.  As  has  appeared  from  the  preceding  reports,  one  great 
problem  of  the  missions  is  how  to  .secure  the  actual  and  .sus- 
tained carrying  out  of  a wise  policy  once  adopted.  And  .s<jme 
of  the  missions  are  troubled  by  the  question  in  its  concrete  and 
crude  form,  as  to  how  to  get  mission  rules  obeyed.  We  have 
come  to  believe  that  discipline  and  unity  are  so  important  that 
it  might  almost  be  laid  down  as  a principle  that  the  harm  that 
comes  from  obeying  a poor  rule  is  far  less  than  the  evil  that 
comes  from  disobeying  it,  while  if  the  rule  is  good  it  is  obvious 
that  it  .should  be  obeyed.  Certainly  if  a mission  has  once  adopted 
a jiolicy  or  a rule  of  action  it  is  the  mission  that  .should  make 
exceptions  to  it  and  not  individuals,  and  mi.ssions  them.selves 
should  be  slow  to  make  exceptions.  There  are  many  cases  where 
it  is  clear  that  if  we  had  adhered  to  right  mission  policies  which 
had  been  agreed  upon,  although  the  growth  at  first  might  have 
been  slower,  the  situation  later  and  now  would  have  been  far 
more  satLsIactory. 

Much  has  been  already  said  on  the  question  of  quantity  or 
quality.  Yet  perhaps  this  is  not  so  much  the  issue  as  the  prob- 
lem of  direction  or  diffusene.ss,  of  concentration  or  purpo.seless- 
ness.  The  great  need  is  for  men  and  women  who  will  lay  out 
work  and  actually  get  it  done  and  who  will  make  sure  that  their 
work  is  never  mere  impersonal  or  institutional  work,  but  always 
a work  that  affects  individuals  and  that  .shows  itself  in  change 
in  individual  lives. 

The  types  of  mission  buildings  erected  in  the  Far  East  have 
improved  greatly  in  recent  years  in  all  mission.s,  so  much  so 
that  there  may  be  danger  of  dissati.sfaction  with  some  old  build- 
ings which  are  .still  quite  good  and  useful  but  which  do  not  equal 
the  modern  buildings  in  beauty  and  convenience.  The  increased 
cost  and  attractiveness  of  the  new  buildings  is  not  perhaps  out 
of  proportion  to  corresponding  changes  in  native  styde  and 
expenditure.  There  is  still  room  for  improvement  in  architec- 
tural taste  and  especially  for  more  harmony  among  the  different 
buildings  in  the  same  mission  compounds.  Here  and  there  in 
the  Far  East  one  meets  a mission  station  where  a uniform  archi- 
tectural ideal  has  prevailed  'nith  beautiful  results.  Elsewhere 
stations  are  found  where  half  a dozen  mi.ssionaries  have  built, 
each  using  different  materials,  colors  and  styles.  The  property 
committees  of  the  missions  have  done  a great  deal  to  standard- 
ize mission  building.  There  is  room  for  further  progress.  The 

500 


CMua  Council  should  give  thought  to  this  matter  in  connection 
with  our  China  missions  and  the  Philippine  Mission  must  he 
sure  to  see  that  a standard  type  of  architecture  is  adopted  for 
Silliman  Institute,  that  it  shall  be  tasteful  and  appropriate  and 
that  all  future  buildings  shall  confonn  to  it.  Personally  I 
believe  that  it  is  desirable  to  reduce  to  the  lowest  extent  the 
practice  of  giving  memorial  names  to  mission  buildings.  These 
names  witness  to  a loving  interest  in  the  work,  and  are  usually 
of  men  or  women  whom  it  is  desired  and  desirable  to  honor  in 
some  such  way,  but  the  names  are  untranslatable  into  the  local 
languages  and  they  stamp  the  enterprise  wherever  the  effort 
is  made  to  use  tliem  as  something  exotic  and  foreign. 

We  have  seen  in  several  fields  illustrations  of  the  danger  of 
allowing  native  churches  to  build  on  mission  property  or  to 
use  clmrches  built  by  the  mission  on  its  own  property  without 
clear  understanding  as  to  ownersliip  and  possible  future  devel- 
opments. It  is  easy  for  the  church  to  drift  into  the  idea  that 
the  property  belongs  to  it  and  in  any  case  long  tenure  is  sure  to 
create  in  the  mind  of  the  church  a sense  of  partial  ownership 
which  proves  embarrassing  to  the  mission  in  case  later  it  finds 
it  de.sirable  to  dispose  of  the  property.  It  may  often  be  greatly 
to  the  interest  of  the  work  to  have  a native  church  acquire  its 
own  church  property  by  some  such  gradual  process  and  gift  on 
the  part  of  the  mission,  and  if  it  is  the  intention  of  the  mission 
with  the  consent  of  the  Board  thus  to  transfer  some  of  its  prop- 
erty, well  and  good,  but  we  know  of  several  situations  in  which 
it  is  ver\^  desirable  that  the  mission  and  the  Board  should  now 
be  free  to  dispose  of  certain  properties  no  longer  needed  by  the 
mission  for  its  use  which  cannot  be  di.spo-sed  of  without  difficulty 
because  churches  have  been  built  on  them — in  one  case  by  the 
native  congregation  and  in  another  case  by  the  mission, — but 
in  each  case  regarded  by  the  congregation  as  entitling  it  to  an 
interest  in  the  property  which  it  was  never  intended  to  convey 
to  it.  Mis.sions  ought  not  to  allow  such  liens  on  mission  pi-oj)- 
erty  to  be  establishe<l  without  the  distinct  approval  of  the  Board 
and  the  tenns  on  Avhich  mission  pro])erty  is  nsed  for  such  church 
purposes  ought  to  be  clei;\rly  thonglit  ont  and  explicitly  defined 
at  the  time  the  arrangement  is  first  made,  and  then  it  should 
be  clearly  nnder.stocMl  that  these  tenns  can  be  modified  oulv 
by  the  Board  and  no  sentimental  complications  should  be  allow- 
ed to  ari.se  which  will  produce  ill  feeling  in  case  the  Board 
adheres  to  the  tenns  of  .such  arrangements. 

V.  It  is  more  evident  to  us  than  ever  that  the  Christian 
Church  is  the  fundamental  institution  in  the  mi.ssionai'y  enter- 
]>rise,  and  tliat  the  establishment  of  a real  church  with  its  own 
life  and  government,  un.subsidized  and  undirected,  but  standing 
on  its  own  feet  and  co-operating  with  ns  or  making  a place  for 
us  to  co-operate  with  it,  should  be  the  normative  principle  of 
mission  policy.  We  should  aim  to  build  uj)  local  congregations 
and  unite  the.se  in  national  chnrche.s,  and  in  a field  where  sev- 

501 


eral  deiiomiiiations  are  at  work  it  is  our  conviction  that  the 
churches  which  they  all  establish  should  he  unite<l  from  the 
hef;inning  as  they  have  been  in  the  Philippine  Islands,  nominally, 
and  as  they  oujjht  to  be  orj^anically.  If  this  is  not  done  at  the 
be^innin"  the  present  conditions  in  Japan  will  suffice  to  show 
liow  difficult,  if  not  inipossihle.  it  is  to  <lo  it  later  on.  The  non- 
riiristian  peo])les  are  well  ex[)erienc(^l  in  relij^ious  sectarianism. 
There  was  comjdaint  when  we  were  in  Japan  from  fifty  o<ld 
Buddhist  sects  and  a dos^en  or  more  i^hinto  .sects  because  only 
one  of  each  Avas  to  he  represente<l  at  the  coronation.  If  we  once 
establish  our  separate  denominations  in  the  mi.ssion  field,  cus- 
tom, natural  affection,  veste<l  interests,  the  de.sire  of  in.stitutions 
to  pre.serve  their  integrity,  and  all  the  human  motives  which 
enter  into  the  maintenance  of  our  divi.sions  at  home,  will  come 
into  play.  And  worst  of  all  the  voice  of  the  church  will  be  a 
divided  voice  and  Christianity  aauII  not  be  able  to  make  itself 
felt  as  it  would  through  a strong  united  life  testifying  by  its 
unity  and  its  love  to  the  pos.sibility  of  those  verj*  things  for 
which  each  nation  is  seeking  and  which  it  can  realize  only 
through  its  full  surrender  to  God  in  Christ. 

Because  the  church  is  so  central  and  important  everj'  effort 
should  be  made  to  give  it  right  character  and  to  .see  that  it  Ls 
made  up  of  true  Christian  men  and  women.  Doubtless  the  Chris- 
tian faith  and  character  of  its  members  will  be  verA'  immature 
at  the  beginning.  That  is  all  the  more  reason  for  making  sure 
that  what  there  is  is  real  and  for  providing  agencies  for  the  elu- 
cation  and  development  of  the  church.  There  are  some  of  our 
mis.sions  which  would  do  well  to  give  careful  heed  to  an  article 
in  the  “Tnteniational  Beview  of  ^fissions”  for  July,  1915,  by 
Johannes  Johnson  entitle^l  “The  Importance  of  the  Catechumen- 
ate”  from  which  a feAv  sentences  may  be  quoted:  “It  is  diffi- 
cult for  a native  to  withstand  the  pressure  exercised  u]K>n  him 
by  ini])atient  catechumens,  and  the  fear  of  losing  them  through 
too  strict  an  adherence  to  the  .severe  rules  of  his  pastoral  instruc- 
tions. MoreoAer,  a great  many  of  the  catechumens  have  not 
been  taught  by  himself,  but  by  assistant  catechists  whom  he  does 
not  Avant  to  hurt;  fear  of  man,  regard  of  public  favour,  weak- 
ne.ss  of  character,  are  indeed  more  common  faults  among  the 
young  Christian  churches  of  our  mis.sion  fields  than  in  the  older 
('hristian  communities.  ...  In  1900.  the  year  in  which  all  the 
missions  lost  most  of  their  schools,  and  the  colonial  Government 
took  up  a decideAlly  anti-religious  attitude,  lasting  till  1910. 
Ave  determined  to  introduce  into  our  work  a .series  of  .special 
rules  regarding  the  teaching  of  catechumens.  The  mo.st  impor- 
tant provisions  were: 

“1.  It  Avas  laid  doAvn  that  those  desiring  to  become  cate- 
chumens must  be  admitted  to  the  catechumenate  through  a pub- 
lic act  before  the  c*ongregation  where  they  attended,  and  their 
names  entered  on  a register  in  which  their  attendance  at  the 
catechumens'  class  was  also  recorded. 

502 


“2.  The  time  of  iustriictioii  and  probation  was  regulated  in 
a way  that  in  most  instances  brought  the  catechumenate  up  to 
about  one  year. 

“3.  Nobody  could  be  baiitized  without  the  approbation  of 
the  congregation  of  tlie  place  wliere  he  lived  and  the  members 
of  wliich  had  seen  him  during  the  time  of  the  catechumenate.  . . . 

“Tn  my  different  classes  through  many  years  only  about  one- 
third  of  tlie  catechumens  actually  reached  baptism  as  members 
of  tlie  class  which  they  joined  in  the  first  imstance.  Two-thirds 
dropped  away,  sometimes  for  good,  sometimes  to  return  after  a 
year  or  two,  or  even  later.  The  most  common  reasons  for  falling 
away,  as  far  as  T have  been  able  to  ascertain,  were  three;  fir,st, 
their  wish  to  become  riiristians  was  not  .serious  at  all,  they 
therefore  soon  lost  jiatience,  found  the  teaching  too  trying  in 
its  regularity  and  their  other  occnjiations  too  important;  sec- 
ondly, they  were  not  able  to  give  up  the  heathen  life — to  enter 
into  a regular  marriage  or  to  give  uji  heathen  customs  of  burial, 
etc.,  proved  too  heavy  for  them ; thirdly,  they  found  it  hard  to 
accept  our  condition  that  they  should  join  in  supporting  their 
church .... 

“If  the  missions  and  the  native  churches  neglect  this  question, 
if  they  allow  indiscriminate  bai»tism  and  think  that  restrictions 
and  tile  (catechumenate  in  any  thorough  form  should  be  re.served 
only  for  admission  to  first  communion,  they  are  sure  to  create 
in  all  heal  lien  lands  the  same  kind  of  baptized  heatheni.sm  under 
which  the  we.'^tern  woild  is  suffering.  Perhaps  the  least  of  the 
(wils  to  which  tliis  will  lead  is  the  disdain,  disparagement  and 
m*glect  of  (ffiristian  bajifism  which  at  jireseiit  is  spreading  over 
all  tin*  ('hrisfian  riiurch  . . . . 

“How  oiir  Lord  is  going  to  shape  the  future  hi.story  of  the 
('Inircli  is  His  matter.  But  our  concern  and  duty  is  at  eveiw 
turn  of  our  way  to  do  the  right  thing.  It  is  only  by  so  doing 
that  we  ('an  be  us<*d  by  Him  to  create  a sound  method  for  the 
progress  of  His  kingdom.  Now  in  this  matter  His  clear  order 
from  lh(‘  b('ginning  has  laa'ii  that  we  should  bajitize  those  who 
sincerely  want  to  be  His  disciph's.  The  only  jiossible  way  to 
ascertain  whether  this  state  of  mind  exists  is  to  have  a solid 
catechunumate  before  baptism.  When  we  have  done  this,  we 
shall  b(‘  able  to  sia*  later  what  the  Lord  is  going  to  do.  For  my 
pai't,  1 am  incliu(*d  to  b(*li(n(*  that  a strong  catechumenate  and 
a i-egular  baidism  of  adults  is  the  ehuiieutary  condition  of  eveiw 
sound  church  and  should  never  have  been  abandoned  in  the 
church(*s  of  the  W(‘st.” 

Our  own  missionaries  feel  this  same  probbun.  Dr.  Eakin,  of 
Petchaburi,  wrote  to  us  iwgarding  it  when  we  were  in  Siam: 
“Our  chief  coiiceru  is  for  the  hundreds  of  jirofessed  believers 
who  are  pressing  for  ba]>tism,  and  we  are  not  able  to  give  them 
the  mwded  instruction.  Manv  of  tluun  have  bemi  waiting  for 
two  or  threi'  y(*ars  since  first  they  j)rofe.;ised  to  accept  Christ  as 
their  Saviour  and  Lord.  1 can  visit  thcun  only  about  once  a 

503 


year  and  only  for  a day  or  two  at  a time.  Our  evan^jelistK  are 
well  equipped  to  do  pioneer  work,  but  are  hardly  equal  to  the 
task  of  preparing  inquirers  for  baptism.  T have  to  care  for  five 
churches  and  .sixty  groups  of  inquirers  numbering  more  than  a 
thousand  souls. 

“The  Lord  is  doing  great  things  for  us,  whereof  we  are  glad; 
but  I find  it  difficult  to  keep  from  feeling  anxious  les*t  we  build 
with  untem])ered  mortar,  and  the  consequences  will  be  disastrous. 
We  are  trying  to  give  our  time  and  strength  to  intensive  work; 
but  we  find  new  converts  at  every  turn  who  wish  to  be  enrolled 
as  believers.  To  baptize  them  in  a year  or  so  with  little  instruc- 
tion seems  a great  ri.sk  in  view  of  the  i.solation  and  the  pre.ssure 
of  heathen  environment.” 

And  such  adequate  educational  training  of  catechumens  should 
be  maintained  systematically  in  the  case  of  church  members  and 
made  an  agency  of  training  of  the  church  in  cea.seless  evangelis- 
tic work. 

And  the  greatest  need  of  the  churches  and  the  mis.sions  is.  I 
believe,  a sustained  and  glowing  evangelism.  The  equipment  of 
our  mi.ssions  is  not  eveiywhere  adequate,  and  tho.se  who  can  not 
serve  the  work  abroad  otherwise  than  by  giving  their  money  at 
home  to  provide  more  equipment,  have  an  ample  field  still  open 
to  them.  But  the  primary  need  of  our  work  is  not  more  equip- 
ment, it  is  for  more  evangelistic  energies  (‘oursing  through  the 
equipment  that  we  have,  the  .schools,  and  the  hospitals,  and  the 
chapels  and  church  buildings.  Regarding  the  moral  and  the 
.social  results  of  missions  there  can  be  no  doubt.  Those  who 
object  to  missions  because  they  are  ineffective  in  influencing 
.society,  choo.se  the  weakest  point  of  attack.  The  point  at  which 
Christians  who  believe  in  mi.ssions  are  least  .satisfied,  is  in  the 
matter  of  the  drive,  the  persistence,  the  patience,  the  longing,  of 
the  evangelistic  work  and  of  all  our  work  in  its  evangelistic 
utilization.  We  are  further  away,  it  seems  to  me.  from  the  ac- 
complishment of  our  aim  of  evangelization,  than  from  the  ac- 
complishment of  any  of  our  other  missionary  aims.  A wise  and 
thoughtful  writer  in  an  article  on  the  relation  of  missions  to 
civilization  in  the  “International  Review  of  Missions”  for  July. 
ini3,  said,  “It  would  appear  that  the  mere  process  of  evangeliza- 
tion. the  mere  making  known  of  the  mes-sage  concerning  God  in 
Christ  to  the  world,  is  a task  now  nearly  accomplished.”  Would 
that  one  could  believe  this  I No  one  could  be  where  we  have 
beeu  and  not  be  constrained  to  think  that  instead  of  being  nearly 
accomplished,  the  task  bad  been  scarcely  begun.  It  is  the  long, 
long  work.  No  one  can  tell  when  it  will  be  done.  It  is  the  mag- 
nitude and  the  endlessness  of  it  that  appall  one  and  make  it 
difficult  to  awaken  and  to  keep  at  ruddy  glow  the  evangelistic 
fervor. 

VI.  Whether  the  number  of  Europeans  in  Asia  will  gi*eatly 
increase  in  the  near  future  is  a matter  of  uncertainty.  Much  of 
the  work  for  which  the  Eastern  nations  have  been  obliged  to 

504 


employ  Europeans  will  be  done  by  Asiatics.  There  are  many 
European  commercial  communities  in  the  Far  East  which  have 
not  grown,  the  increase  of  business  having  been  brought  about 
by  the  entrance  of  Asiatic  traders  into  the  field.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  .steady  unification  of  the  world  throws  the  shuttles  of 
race  ever  to  and  fro  across  the  web  of  life  and  there  may  be  a 
steady  or  a spasmodic  increase  of  foreigners  in  the  East.  It  is 
most  important  both  to  the  East  and  to  the  West  that  the  moral 
character  and  influence  of  this  element  should  be  helpful.  The 
general  testimony  is  that  it  is  increasingly  helpful.  Old  busi- 
ness men  in  a city  like  Yokohama  testify  that  the  general  tone 
of  the  foreign  community  has  steadily  advanced  and  that  while 
in  the.se  communities,  as  everv^where  in  society,  the  outstanding 
individual  may  not  be  as  conspicuous  as  he  was  when  a few 
great  merchants  largely  dominated  this  field  of  trade,  never- 
theless the  av'erage  has  risen  and  the  moral  purity  of  life  be- 
come more  creditable  to  the  West  and  more  helpful  to  the  East. 
Between  the.se  European  communities  and  the  missionary  body, 
there  is  in  general  now  a much  better  feeling  and  understand- 
ing than  there  was  twenty-five  years  ago.  There  lias  been  a 
return  to  the  good  spirit  of  the  earliest  days  when  men  like  John 
0.  Green  and  his  as.sociates  founded  the  medical  missionary  so- 
ciety in  Canton  and  when  the  Oliphant  ships  again  and  again 
.served  the  mi.ssionary  enterprise.  There  is  still,  however,  a great 
work  to  be  done  in  recovering  the  wreckage  of  European  life  in 
Asia  and  in  awakening  everj-  motive  that  may  protect  our  young 
men  who  go  to  Asia  on  business  froiin  sinking  down  to  the  basest 
levels  of  moral  life  about  them.  It  is  clear  that  racial  self-respect 
and  pride  of  racial  integritv’  are  not  sufficient  to  accomplish  this. 
They  .seem  to  be  very  superficial  qualities.  Witness  the  horde 
of  Eurasians  in  Asia  born  of  the  very  men  who  are  loudest  in 
their* boasts  of  these  virtues.  As  a British  newspaper  man  in 
the  Straits  Settlements  says,  “The  British  have  a pride  of  pure 
race  which  would  be  admirable  enough  if  it  kept  them  from  all 
intercourse  with  black,  brown,  or  yellow.  To  beget  and  then  to 
.scorn  strikes  me  as  somewhat  abominable,  a crime,  in  fact, 
against  nature.”  The  Eura.sian  is  one  of  the  great  .social  prob- 
lems of  the  East,  a j)roblem  which  those  races  are  most  respon- 
sible for  solving  which,  on  the  father’s  .side,  i)r(Hluced  the  Euras- 
ian. Lord  Haldane  has  spoken  in  .several  of  his  speeches  of  Sir 
Alfred  Lyall’s  poem  which  pictures  the  glorious  strength  of 
race  pride  in  lifting  a man  above  moral  weakness.  “The  poem  is 
called  ‘Theology  in  Extremis,’  and  it  describes  the  feelings  of  an 
Englishman  who  had  Imen  taken  pri.soner  by  Mahometan  rebels 
in  the  Indian  Mutiny.  lie  is  face  to  face  with  a cruel  death. 
They  offer  him  his  life  if  he  will  repeat  something  from  the 
Koran.  If  he  complies,  no  one  is  likely  ever  to  hear  of  it,  and 
he  will  be  free  to  return  to  England  and  to  the  woman  he  loves. 
Moreover,  and  here  is  the  real  point,  he  is  not  a believer  in  Chri.s- 
tianity,  so  that  it  is  no  (piestion  of  denying  his  Saviour.  What 
ought  he  to  do?  Deliverance  is  ea.sy,  and  tlie  relief  and  advant- 

605 


age  would  be  uiisjjeakably  greal.  But  lie  does  not  really  hesitate 
and  every  sliadow  of  doubt  disajipears  wlien  be  bears  bis  fellow 
jirisouer,  a ball-caste,  jiatteriug  eagei  ly  the  words  demaiide<l ; He 
biiuself  has  no  hojie  of  heaven  and  he  loves  life — 

“Yet  for  the  honor  of  EngliKli  race 
May  I not  live  or  endure  disgract*. 

Ay,  but  the  word  if  I <’ould  have  said  it, 

I by  no  terrors  of  hell  i)eri)lext 

Hard  to  be  silent  and  have  no  ci'edit 

From  men  in  this  world,  or  reward  in  the  next  : 

None  to  bear  witness  and  reckon  the  cost 
Of  the  name  that  is  saved  by  the  life  that  is  lost. 

I must  begone  to  the  crowd  untold 

f)f  men  by  the  cause  which  they  servexl  unknown. 

Who  moulder  in  myriad  graves  of  old  ; 

Never  a story  and  never  a stone 
Tells  of  the  martyrs  who  die  like  me 
.Just  for  the  ])ride  of  the  old  countree.” 

This  pride  of  loyalty  to  the  best  moral  ideal  of  the  race  does 
suffice  to  hold  many  men  who  live  their  louely  lives  in  cleanness 
or  who  honourably  marry  women  of  Asia  and  leave  a pure  in- 
heritance to  their  children.  A large  Inwly  of  Eurasians  jto.s.^e.ss 
this  ])ure  heritage.  Bnt  the  ])i-ide  of  race  fails  in  thou.sands  of 
other  lives. 

Mere  environmental  religion  also  fails  and  one  is  tempted  to 
wonder  from  what  he  sees  in  these  lands,  how  much  of  our  Am- 
erican religion  is  integral  to  men  tind  how  much  is  merely  en- 
vironmental. All  along  onr  way  we  met  with  men  who  had  been 
open  in  their  church  relationshij)s  at  home  and  sometimes  active 
in  their  Christian  service,  from  whom  the  whole  thing  had 
slipped  away  as  a garment  when  they  came  out  to  the  Far  Ea.st. 
There  must  be  .something  more  than  racial  pride  or  borrowed 
religion  to  hold  men  true  and  to  make  them  strong  to  render 
moral  .service  in  the  uj)lifting  of  the  East.  They  need  the  iron 
of  the  moral  law.  teni])ered  ami  forged  into  steel  in  the  furnace 
of  the  love  of  Christ.  And  if  they  are  to  be  held  to  all  that  is 
best  and  highest  when  they  come  out  to  the  East  they  need  to 
ally  themselves  at  once  with  the  Chri.stiau  Church.  The  Young 
Men’s  Christian  Association  is  doing  a u.seful  work,  but  it  has 
found  itself  almost  iiu]M)tent  to  accom])lish  anything  in  this  held 
and  where  it  is  trying  to  do  so,  feels  tliat  it  meets  here  its  grejit- 
est  problem.  One  of  its  secretaries  told  me  frankly  that  he  know 
of  no  young  men  who  were  being  held  absolutely  faithful  to  the 
ideals  of  moral  i)urity  who  had  not  connected  themselves  wdth 
the  church  and  were  not  openly  identifying  themselves  jvith  its 
wor.ship  and  its  work.  Among  Asiatics  and  Europeans  alike,  the 
indispensable  and  siipreme  agency  is  the  Christian  congregation. 

A sad  but  curious  problem  arises  in  some  stations  in  the  mat- 
ter of  the  duty  of  mis.sionaries  toward  the  illegitimate  children 
of  Europeans  or  Americans  who  are  returning  home  from  Asia, 
abandoning  their  offspring  but  yet  desiring  to  make  some  pro- 
vision for  them.  In  some  cases  ini.s.sionaries  have  assumed  a 

50G 


sort  of  giiaiHliansliip  of  such  children  and  have  received  remit- 
tances from  home  on  their  account.  The  little  children  are  not 
responsible  foi-  their  ille<ritimacy.  It  is  a riiristiau  man’s  duty 
to  do  all  that  lie  can  to  help  such  little  ones,  hut  on  the  other 
hand  it  puts  the  missionary  in  a strange  situation,  to  be  looked 
to,  as  he  so  often  is,  to  take  up  such  responsibilities.  His  ac- 
ceptance of  them  may  easily  lead  to  misunder.standings  among 
tlie  people.  It  would  seem  that  no  fixed  rule  could  be  laid  down 
but  that  such  .situations  call  for  a great  deal  of  di.scretion  and 
wise  judgment  on  the  part  of  the  mi.s.sionarie.s.  Certainly  one 
cannot  withhold  his  deepest  s^unpathy  from  the  unfortunate 
children.  We  shall  never  forget  the  face  of  one  little  boy  that 
looked  up  at  us  from  the  front  row  of  one  of  our  schools  in  Siam. 
That  little  face  will  ever  be  an  undying  appeal  for  compas.sion. 

VII.  It  is  both  exhilarating  and  pitiful  to  see  the  eagerness 
of  Asia  to  acquire  the  English  language.  It  is  exhilarating  be- 
cause it  is  a sign  of  the  hunger  of  the  world  for  unity  and  for 
a common  speech,  becau.se  it  reveals  the  intellectual  awakening 
of  Asia,  because  it  opens  to  the  Asiatic  peoples  ranges  of  litera- 
ture and  knowledge  otherwise  inaccessible,  because  language  is 
a living  thing  with  an  indwelling  spirit  which  moulds  those  who 
open  themselves  to  it.  Their  own  languages  are  a heavy  burden 
on  some  of  the  Asiatic  j)eoples.  The  Chine.se  ideographs,  which 
Chinese  and  Japanese  must  learn,  lay  a ta.sk  of  drudger\'  and 
memorization  upon  the  young  mind  which  is  cnishing.  It  takes 
years  for  a Chinese  child  to  learn  the  language  by  which  he  is 
to  lean)  other  things.  Japanese  have  .simj)litiefl  the  matter  a 
great  deal  by  the  “kana”  characters  which  are  a .sort  of  alphabet 
and  which  in  the  news]»apers  are  j)rinte<l  in  parallel  columns 
with  the  regular  characters.  There  is  a strong  movement  in 
Ja]>an  to  intnaluce  Koniaji,  that  is.  to  substitute  for  the  char- 
acters, the  phonetic  soiinds  exi»ivsse<l  in  Homan  letters.  The 
effort  to  introduce  this  reform  in  China  aiid  Jaj>an.  however, 
meets  with  immensely  greater  dilbculties  than  our  reform  sjkJI- 
ing  enc-ounters  at  home.  It  is  sad  to  reflect  that  in  Korea  the 
cumbersome  Jaj>anese  language  .s<H*ms  likely  to  sup])lant  in  dne 
time  Korean  with  its  wonderfully  sinij>le  and  heautiful  apha- 
bet,  and  that  in  Siam  the  Siamese  letters  are  already  displacing 
the  far  more  beautiful  Lao. 

But  while  the  demand  for  English  is  exhilarating  there  is 
•something  .sa<l  about  it.  So  much  of  the  demand  is  purely  com- 
mercial and,  while  not  unworthily  .so.  it  testifies  to  the  dread- 
ful necessity  under  which  the  grwiter  ])art  of  Asia  lies,  of  con- 
struing all  the  values  of  life  in  terms  of  one  day’s  breud.  It  is 
sad  al.so  becau.se  .so  often  the  ejigerne.ss  for  the  new  is  indiscrim- 
inate ami  what  is  trivial  and  unworthy  is  taken  in  with  the 
goml,  while  that  which  was  good  and  wortJiy  in  the  old  is  di.s- 
carde<l  with  what  was  u.se.le.ss  or  bad.  It  is  now  and  it  may  be 
even  more  in  the  future  the  <luty  of  the  mis.sionary  enteiqjrise 
t(>  do  what  it  can  to  jirotect  the  Asiatic  i)eople  from  them.selves 

507 


and  to  help  them  to  comserve  the  gocxi  of  their  own  past  which 
otherwise  they  would  throw  away.  Few  greater  evils  could  be- 
fall Asia  than  that  it  should  make  the  mi.stake  of  excessive  imita- 
tion of  Western  civilization  in  its  present  fonn  or  that  it  should 
impoverish  the  stock  which  it  i)rings  for  the  reception  of  the  new 
graft. 

VIII.  The  problems  of  the  medical  missionary  work  in  the 
different  fields  which  we  visited  have  been  discusse^l  caf>ably 
elsewhere.  But  it  is  interesting  to  reflect  upon  the  probable  future 
of  our  medical  missions.  It  is  evident  that  in  some  fields  there 
will  perhaps  not  be  room  for  them  in  their  old  fonn,  govern- 
mental agencies  supplying  more  adequately  and  efficiently  the 
medical  necessities  of  the  people.  Some  of  the  objects  for  which 
our  hospitals  were  started  we  may  find  it  no  longer  neces-sarj' 
to  seek  or  to  seek  by  these  agencies.  On  the  other  hand  we  may 
find  it  desirable  in  soane  places  where  we  have  never  had  medi- 
cal work  or  where  the  ordinary  reasons  for  it  may  have  disap- 
peared, to  maintain  it  in  simpler  forms,  if  that  can  be  done,  as 
j)erhaps  it  cannot,  just  as  such  work  is  used  in  institutional 
churches  at  home.  Such  problems  as  these,  however,  may  be  far 
ahead  of  us  and  meauwiiile  the  medical  work  is  capable  of  ren- 
dering an  immense  service  if  it  can  be  made  to  appear  to  the 
people  as  a truly  Christlike  ministry  of  love  and  not  as  a mere 
public  institution.  Perhaps  evervffhing  will  depend  here  ufx>n 
the  personality  of  the  doctors  in  charge.  Certainly  medical 
missionaries,  of  all  missionaries,  should  go  out  with  the  evan- 
gelical spirit  and  the  evangelistic  purpose.  In  no  men  more 
than  in  them,  should  Christ  shine  forth. 

IX.  It  fills  one  with  wmuder  to  see  the  way  in  w’hich  the  non- 
Christian  religions  are  undergoing  transformation,  in  their  ten- 
dency, parti}'  conscious,  and  partly  \inconscious,  to  .slough  off 
the  w'eakuesses  w'hich  contact  w'ith  Christianity  has  revealed, 
and  to  develop  whatever  resemblances  they  may  have  to  Chris- 
tianity, and  to  borrow  from  it  so  far  as  they  can  what  it  pos- 
sesses and  they  lack.  The  w'hole  tendency  brings  into  clearer 
view  the  things  that  are  strong  and  unique  in  the  gospel.  It 
may  reveal  also  things  in  the  go.spel  that  w'e  had  not  so  clearly 
seen.  It  has  revealed  and  w'ill  reveal  nothing  that  the  gospel  of 
the  Xew'  Testament,  understood  in  its  fullness,  lacks.  As  Dr. 
Denny  says,  in  his  commentaiw  on  II  Corinthians,  speaking  of 
the  first  six  verses  of  the  eleventh  chapter,  “There  is  no  com- 
parison between  the  Gospel  of  God  in  Jesus  Christ  His  Son  and 
any  other  religion.  The  science  of  comparative  religion  is  in- 
teresting as  a science;  but  a Christian  may  be  excused  for  find- 
ing the  religious  use  of  it  tiresome.  There  is  nothing  true  in 
any  of  the  religious  w'hich  is  not  already  in  his  possession.  He 
never  finds  a moral  idea,  a law’  of  the  spiritual  life,  a word  of 
God,  in  any  of  them,  to  which  he  cannot  immediately  offer  a 
parallel,  far  more  simple  and  penetrating,  from  the  revelation 
of  Christ.  He  has  no  intere.st  in  disparaging  the  light  by  which 

508 


millions  of  his  fellow-creatures  have  walked,  generation  after 
generation,  in  the  mysterious  providence  of  God;  but  he  sees 
no  reason  for  pretending  that  that  light — which  Scripture  calls 
darkness  and  the  shadow  of  death — can  bear  comparison  with 
the  radiance  in  which  he  lives.  ‘If’  he  might  say,  misapplying 
the  fourth  verse — ‘if  they  brought  us  another  saviour,  another 
spirit,  another  gospel,  we  might  be  religiously  interested  in 
them ; but,  as  it  is,  we  have  everything  already,  and  they,  in 
comparison,  have  nothing,’  The  same  remark  applies  to  ‘the- 
osophy,’ ‘spiritualism,’  and  other  ‘go.spels.’  It  will  be  time  to 
take  them  seriously  when  they  utter  one  wise  or  true  word  on 
God  or  the  soul  which  is  not  an  echo  of  something  in  the  old 
familiar  Scriptures.” 

X.  This  ab.soluteness  of  Christianity  is  sometimes  construed 
by  us  in  exclusive  rather  than  inclusive  terms  and  the  gospel  that 
has  sent  us  out  as  the  servants  of  men  insensibly  operates  to 
make  us  their  masters.  The  superior  prowess  of  the  Western 
peoples,  their  advancement  in  knowledge,  their  master}"  of  ap- 
plied science,  the  conscious  maturity  and  strength  of  their  po- 
litical judgments,  the  too  ready  acknowledgment  of  their  weak- 
ness and  inability  on  the  part  of  the  Oriental  peoples,  the  energ}" 
of  Anglo-Saxon  character  against  inertia  or  inefficiency,  the 
quasi-consular  status  which  extra-territorial ity  has  given  and 
which  now  and  then  one  meets  a mi.s.sionary  who  is  reluctant  to 
give  up  just  on  this  account,  because  he  sincerely  believes  that 
.such  a position  of  superiority  increases  his  influence  as  a rep- 
reseTitative  of  the  gospel, — the.se  and  many  other  things  make 
it  difficult  to  keep  the  spirit  in  which  alone  Christ  can  be  truly 
repre.sented  to  men  and  the  gos-pel  of  human  unit}"  proclaimed. 
A letter  from  a missionary  in  China  whom  I honor  and  love, 
which  came  to  us  in  Shanghai  just  as  we  were  leaving  the  field, 
state.s  the  whole  matter  better  than  any  words  of  mine  can: 

“Now  that  I have  lived  for  some  years  in  the  Orient  I know 
a good  many  things  about  the  difficulties  of  missionary  work 
that  I did  not  know  before  coming  here.  One  of  the  greate.st 
hindrances,  to  my  mind,  to  the  coming  of  the  Kingdom  here  so 
far  as  we  missionaries'’  shortcomings  ai'e  concerned,  is  the  feel- 
ing of  race  .superiority  or  arrogance  that  gradually  .springs  up 
in  a foreigairr’s  heart.  I think  our  race  is  naturally  an  arro- 
gant race  and  the  whole  circumstances  of  our  life  here  make  it 
e<i.s}’  for  this  kind  of  feeling  to  take  possession  of  us.  I mean 
such  things  as  extra  territoriality,  our  influence  simply  because 
we  are  foreignei-s,  the  lack  of  backbone  of  the  Chinese,  the  knowl- 
eflge  of  our  race’s  achievements,  etc.  As  1 have  tried  to  examine 
my  own  heart  it  seems  to  me  that  most  missionaries  go  through 
the  same  experience.  We  start  in  often  with  great  s}-mpathy  for 
the  p(*ople,  trust  in  them  because  tliey  seem  .so  open  and  attrac- 
tive, but  gradually,  partly  throngli  di.sappointment  with  indi- 
vi<luals  but  mo.st  of  all  through  the  subth‘  intluence  of  a feeling 
of  race  superiority  that  most  all  foreigners  in  the  Orient  seem 

509 


to  liave,  Nw  bo}>:iii  to  put  nj)  a bai-rier  between  oiH‘Kelve«s  and  the 
people  wliicli  I believe  to  be  a very  I'eal  liimlrance  to  the  spread 
of  the  Gosjtel.  We  do  not  so  o]MMily  (lisj)kiy  this  sjiirit  and  sKune- 
tinies  we  are  aide  to  hide  it,  but  nevertlieless  it  is  a factor  to  be 
dealt  with.  I don’t  think  the  f^reat  mass  of  the  people  i-ealize 
that  the  missionaries  ai-e  this  way,  but  I think  the  <.slncate<l  on(*s 
often  .see  it,  the  retnined  stmleiits,  foi-  instance,  aiid  it  is  a real 
hindi-ance.  (kuion  Kobinson  in  a little  book  entitled  ‘The  Inter- 
])7-etation  of  the  Character  of  Christ  to  Non-Christian  Kaces,’ 
ex])res.ses  what  f mean.  He  says  that  we  are  w«jk  on  the  side 
of  j)atience,  hnmility,  meekness,  non-rc^sistame,  which  is  the  side 
of  the  Christian  character  which  j)articnlarly  aj)peals  to  the 
])eo])le  of  the  Orient.  I find  that  the  minffliii};  of  this  side  of 
the  Christian  character  with  tirmiH*ss,  honesty,  justice,  the  hatre<I 
of  hyjtocrisy  is  one  of  the  very  haidest  ]»roblems  I have  had  to 
face.  As  soon  as  yon  fjo  out  of  yoni-  way  to  be  kind,  and  try 
to  treat  the  Chinese  as  yon  would  a foreipier,  he  will  as  a gen- 
eral rule  take  advantage  of  it,  and  the  average  per.son  wiio 
stai'ts  in  w ith  the  idea  of  treating  the  j)eople  as  real  friends  and 
brothers  is  too  often  a])t  to  give  nj>  this  attitude  unless  he  is 
coni])letely  deceived  by  them  and  does  not  see  through  their  ex- 
terior. It  is  veiw  hard  to  exi)ress  in  a letter  just  what  I mean 
but  it  is  a real  factor.  This  creejts  into  onr  conversuition  when 
no  Chinese  are  li.stening.  'NMien  T first  came  out,  one  of  the 
things  that  struck  me  was  the  lack  of  reverence  of  missionaries 
for  the  ])ersonality  of  individuals  such  as  a Christian  ought  to 
have.  This  is  of  conr.se  largely  intlnenced  by  the  fact  that  they 
do  not  have  this  res])ect  for  one  another.  Onr  social  life  is  for 
the  most  ]>art  almost  comj)letely  cut  off  from  them.  Of  coni*se 
1 know  that  this  is  ])artly  inevitable,  and  they  on  their  part 
don’t  admit  ns  into  their  families  the  way  they  do  one  another. 
However,  there  are  some  with  whom  it  would  be  possible,  onr 
educated  clergymen  for  instance,  and  the  Engli.sh-s]»eaking  stu- 
dents who  have  graduated  and  are  in  various  occupations.  I 
can  sym])athize  with  the  missionaries  in  this  failure  of  ours 
because  1 have  failed  in  this  respect  too.  but  I am  making  a 
conscious  effort  to  overcome  this  defect.  If  I were  to  go  home 
now,  I would  not  feel  much  like  appealing  for  money,  but  rather 
that  the  Church  at  home  would  give  itself  to  more  constant 
]>rayer  that  we  out  heiv  would  l>e  more  com])letely  tilled  with 
the  love  and  hnmility  of  Christ  and  be  given  greater  wisdom  and 
insight  as  to  how  to  inter))ret  this  love.  I want  the  Church  at 
home  to  know  where  we  are  failing,  for  I feel  that,  as  a body, 
we  are  failing  very  greatly  to  manifest  the  atoning  life  of  Christ. 
It  is  easy  to  lieli)  in  famine  work,  or  to  do  what  we  can  to  pro- 
tect thein  during  tighting  comjtared  to  humbling  ourselves  before 
them  as  individuals,  and  having  enough  sympathetic  insight 
that  we  can  .sense  their  froling  about  matters.  I remend>er  one 
of  my  teachers  whom  1 learmsl  to  love  greatly,  often  used  to  .say 
that  the  greatest  mystery  of  all  to  Paul  was  the  unity  of  the 
human  race  in  Christ.  Being  brought  up  such  a strict  Jew  ac- 

510 


counted  for  liis  wonder.  I can  better  appreciate  Paul’s  wonder 
now.” 

XI.  The  ab.solute  nn.selfisbne.ss  of  the  mi.ssionary  inoveiuent 
needs  to  be  f>;nairded  with  scrupulous  care.  Other  agencies  of 
international  intlnence  may  ])roj)erly  include  an  element  of  self- 
interest.  ‘‘The  banker,”  said  Mr.  Seligman,  referring  to  the  ne- 
gotiations attending  such  transactions  as  the  Chinese  loans, 
‘hiever  loses  sigHit  of  the  resulting  advantage  to  accrue  to  his 
own  country.”  The  missionary  ought  to  lose  sight  of  eveiy  such 
advantage  utterly.  The  enterpri.se  should  be  stripped  of  every 
asj)ect  of  interest.  It  goes  out  to  the  nations,  a.sking  nothing, 
seeking  nothing,  naked  of  every  ])olitical  alliance.  It  does  not 
exist  to  ])romote  commerce,  to  secure  for  the  nations  from  which 
it  comes  any  more  good  Avill  of  the  j)eople  to  whom  it  goes  than 
it  .seeks  to  secure  for  all  other  nations.  Our  American  mi.ssion- 
aries  are  not  in  China  to  promote  trade  or  intercourse  or  better 
feeling  between  China  and  the  United  States.  They  are  there 
to  advance  the  cau.se  of  human  unity,  to  hasten  the  day  when  all 
men  shall  be  brothers,  to  bind  not  two  races  together  in  political 
and  commercial  relationship,  but  to  bind  all  men  together  in 
Christ.  As  Profes.sor  Keinsch  Avrites.  “There  can  be  little  doubt 
that  the  success  and  the  moral  authority  of  missions  is  being 
jeojKirdized  by  their  connection  Avith  j)olitics,  and  by  the  politi- 
cal j)urposes  Avhich,  often  against  their  will,  they  are  made  to 
sub.ser\"e.  The  missionan’  Avho  goes  forth  unaided  to  face  count- 
less hard.shij)s,  and  to  battle  against  the  hostility  of  nature  and 
of  savage  men,  merits  the  resj)ect  of  all,  and  gives  the  best  kind 
of  guarantee  of  bis  aims  and  intentions.  But  Avhen  the  State 
.stands  ready  to  turn  his  high-minded  and  unselfish  heroism  into 
a source  of  material  gain  to  itself,  and  to  make  use  of  it  for 
])urj)oses  of  national  expansion,  there  is  danger  that  the  mis- 
sionary may  lose  moral  j)OAver  and  be  hvoked  uj)on  as  a mere 
|M)litical  emis.sary.  Moreover,  the  unity  of  Christian  mission- 
ary AA’ork  is  liable  to  be  desti-oAa*d  by  having  its  field  of  Avork 
broken  up  arbitrarily  into  national  area.s.  Temlencies  .such  as 
these  .should  be  earnestly  discouraged  in  order  that  the  missions 
may  retain  their  value  as  agencies  of  redemi)tion  and  improve- 
ment. Missi(Uiaries  in  all  parts  of  the  world  are  voicing  their 
opjM)sition  to  the  clo.se  connection  of  missions  Avilh  ])olitics, 
AA’hich  destroys  the  confidence  of  the  uatiA’es  and  robs  the  mission- 
ary of  his  intlnence  as  a protector  of  the  uatiA'e  against  even- 
kind  of  exi)loitation.”  This  is  justly  s]»oken.  Missions  must  be 
.saved  fi-om  any  such  confusion  foi-  the  reasons  of  Avhich  Pro- 
fessor Keinsch  has  sjstkeu  and  for  the  deeper  i-easons  AA'hich  liaAe 
been  statfsl. 

Over  tin*  inner  dooi-Avay  of  the  Institute  Avhich  Dr.  White- 
Avright  has  built  ujt  in  Tsinanfu.  one  of  the  most  remarkable 
missionary  agencies  in  the  Avorld,  is  this  inscrij>tion,  “The  aim 
of  this  institution  is  to  shoAV  thi-ough  all  its  agencies  God  mani- 
fest in  nature,  in  tbe  Avorld,  and  in  the  teachings  of  Je.sus  Christ 
the  Siivior  of  mankind. 


511 


1 


“It  seeks  1o  illustmte  human  progress  and  the  principles  on 
which  that  i)rogress  must  be  forwarded ; to  enlighten  in  all  that 
makes  for  the  welfare  of  China  and  the  Chinese  people;  to  bring 
East  and  West  together  in  the  knowle<lge  of  the  fatherho<>d  of 
Cod  and  the  brotherhood  of  man. 

“ ‘Have  we  not  all  one  Father,  hath  not  one  God  created  us 
all  ?’ — Malachi. 

“ ‘God  hath  made  of  one  blood  all  nations  of  men.’ — St.  Paul.” 

XII.  In  conclusion,  are  not  these  our  great  missionary 
problems?  How  to  generate  a spontaneous,  unsubsjdized  and 
self-sustained  evangelism  in  native  churches  made  up  of  truly 
believing,  growing  Christian  men  and  women ; how  to  secure 
in  these  churches  a leadership  true,  and  bold  and  freely  led  of 
God ; how  to  keep  and  increase  the  personal  and  individual  .ser- 
vice in  the  midst  of  the  heavy  institutional  and  general  activities 
of  missions;  how  to  bathe  the  work  in  sympathy  and  compre- 
hension, lifting  it  above  all  suspicion  and  spiritual  contractions; 
how  to  apply  the  same  sympathy-  and  comprehen.sion  to  races  as 
well  as  to  individuals ; and  how  to  be  our.selves  more  wise,  pow- 
erful, contagious  workmen.  “What  I long  for,”  wrote  one  of 
our  missionaries  in  Japan  as  we  came  away,  “is  more  courage 
and  more  power.  These  seem  to  me  to  be  the  great  needs.”  Are 
they  not?  What  needs  can  be  greater  than  these?  The  need  of 
the  perfect  love  that  casts  out  all  fear  and  of  the  strength  made 
perfect  in  weakness  which  says  “My  Father  worketh  and.  I 
work.” 

R.  E.  S. 


512 


This  book  was  taken  from  the  Library  ! 
on  the  date  last  stamped.  A fine  of  ! anna 

will  be  charged  for  each  day  the  book  Is  kept  ^ 

overtime  i 


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